EVERETT – It didn’t get to celebrate homecoming until basketball season or take its winter cruise until June, but the Marysville-Pilchuck High School Class of 2004 finally has graduated.
In an upbeat commencement ceremony at the Everett Events Center on Thursday night, the 589-member graduating class reached the end of its journey, an academic trek that was sidetracked by a state-record 49-day teachers strike last fall.
Many shrugged off the belated graduation but know others around the state will identify Marysville with the strike for years to come.
“It’ll be a conversation starter,” said Joshua Kanehen, a senior and one of the school’s four valedictorians.
Butch Williams took a ferry from Jefferson County to watch his granddaughter, Nichole-Rene’e Fink, graduate.
“I told people I was going to a graduation,” he said. “I never had to say where I was going. They all knew it was Marysville.”
Dustin Dekle, the senior class president who organized rallies and a camp-out at district headquarters to try to end the strike last fall, said the year produced stories – and even some fond memories – he will tell his children and grandchildren some day.
“No one is ever going to forget it,” he said.
Yet when school finally started Oct. 22 it zoomed by for Dekle.
“After the strike, it seemed like I blinked and the year was over,” Dekle said.
“I’m kind of wishing I was still in school,” said senior Kim Danly. “I’m going to miss everybody.”
Tracy VanWinkle, the school’s principal, said she will always remember the Class of 2004 for its perseverance.
“They didn’t want to miss any of their senior year and they haven’t,” she said. “We can be very, very proud as a community that we have young people like this heading into the world.”
“They had a good attitude and a good work ethic and they just pulled through,” said Greg Barker, the school’s activities director.
Terry Bergeson, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, told the seniors she was proud of them.
“You made it,” she said. “You made the choice to be here.”
The late date didn’t deter Steven Berry Sr. His son, Steven, who will report to Marine basic training in September, accomplished what the senior Berry did not in receiving his high school diploma.
“It’s just great,” Berry Sr. said, nodding from the top of the nosebleed section toward his son on the floor below. “I’m so proud of him.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
Words of wisdom
Several Marysville-Pilchuck High School students spoke at Thursday’s graduation exercises. Here are excerpts from some of their speeches:
“There are many things I have learned while at Marysville-Pilchuck, some as academic as how to determine the molecular geometry of a compound based upon its chemical formula, others as useful as how to make fireworks out of Gummi Bears.
“I am certainly not leaving Pilchuck the same person I walked in as, but if there is one thing which, above all, has been the most important thing I learned, it is this: Life is nothing without happiness, and in the absence of it, we must manufacture our own.”
– Jessica Emge-Hosner
“My main point is a concept I wish I’d grasped many years ago. Although knowledge and grades are important, they cannot bring fulfillment. Love, morality and faith beat grades by boundless measures.”
– Jacob Vawter
“Many of us are asking ourselves, ‘Where did the last few years really go?’ The days of playing in the river, dressing up for dances and smelling fresh manure as we leave campus seem to be ending. The days of first kisses, cliff jumping and good times with friends and hours of homework really have come to a conclusion in this chapter of our lives.”
– Lyndsay Boatman
Words of wisdom
Several Marysville-Pilchuck High School students spoke at Thursday’s graduation exercises. Here are excerpts from some of their speeches:
“There are many things I have learned while at Marysville-Pilchuck, some as academic as how to determine the molecular geometry of a compound based upon its chemical formula, others as useful as how to make fireworks out of Gummi Bears.
“I am certainly not leaving Pilchuck the same person I walked in as, but if there is one thing which, above all, has been the most important thing I learned, it is this: Life is nothing without happiness, and in the absence of it, we must manufacture our own.”
– Jessica Emge-Hosner
“My main point is a concept I wish I’d grasped many years ago. Although knowledge and grades are important, they cannot bring fulfillment. Love, morality and faith beat grades by boundless measures.”
– Jacob Vawter
“Many of us are asking ourselves, ‘Where did the last few years really go?’ The days of playing in the river, dressing up for dances and smelling fresh manure as we leave campus seem to be ending. The days of first kisses, cliff jumping and good times with friends and hours of homework really have come to a conclusion in this chapter of our lives.”
– Lyndsay Boatman
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