Heavy rain this morning forced Riverhead High School’s commencement indoors this year. Ceremonies were held in a packed and sweltering gymnasium.
But the weather was about the only thing that was uncooperative today, as the ceremonies went forward without a hitch. Since each graduate had only three spectator tickets, an overflow crowd filled the high school auditorium where ceremonies were simulcast on a large screen.
School Superintendent Nancy Carney, who is retiring in August, gave her last commencement remarks, urging the graduates to be proud of who they are and where they came from as they go out into the world.
“It doesn’t matter if you become a surgeon, a musician, a teacher, athlete store owner, lawyer, landscaper, photographer or inventor,” she said.
“What matters most to me is that we somehow instilled in you the ability to use your minds and hearts well. This is not something that can be measured in dollars and cents or averaged on a report card,” Carney said. “It is something that will be reflected in your contributions to the world around us.
“Right now, today, the world around us is experiencing amazing and unprecedented changes the likes of which no one in this audience could have imagined when we were in high school,” Carney said. “With increasing speed, the world of commerce, communication and citizenship is undergoing a radical transformation. Using your hearts and minds well as you face all of the changes ahead will ensure that your future and the future of this wonderful country are bright.”
The Class of 2017 suffered the tragic losses of two classmates, John Anderson earlier this year and Danielle Lawrence in February 2015. The tragedies weighed heavily on this graduating class, whose joy on this exciting day was tempered by sadness.
The class made the traditional class gift in memory of John and Danielle.
“Though Danielle is gone she will never be forgotten,” class secretary Breanna Coach said during today’s ceremony.
“Number 63 [the jersey worn by John on the Blue Waves football team] will forever be in our hearts,” she said.
The class donated violins to the Pulaski Street School music department where Danielle learned to play and made a cash donation to the John D. Anderson Memorial Scholarship.
Valedictorian Kyle Gevinski in his address to his classmates told them that dealing with the loss of Danielle and John and coping with the emotions that followed “have made the Class of 2017 stronger as human beings. It taught us the meaning of true friendship,” he said.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the gym as commencement exercises wrapped up with the presentation of diplomas posthumously to John and Danielle, which were accepted by members of their families.
John’s sister Maria accepted the diploma on his behalf, as his parents Dennis and Carmel Anderson, looked on. Danielle’s father Tony and his younger daughter Brandy accepted her diploma.
Both losses were terrible blows to this class — as well as the school community and the Riverhead community at large. John took his own life at a local beach in March, shocking everyone who knew him. Danielle was a victim of domestic violence, along with her mother, in a double-murder/suicide at their Wading River home in February 2015.
In the words of the valedictorian, a young man wise beyond his years, “We must remember our pasts but not dwell on them.”
Principal Dr. Charles Regan said the words officially conferring their diplomas. The members of the Class of 2017 moved their tassels from right to left, marched from the gym and emerged from the school building to find the dark clouds and drenching rain had given way to blue skies and sunshine, the final dramatic transformation of the day complete.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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