By BEN JACKSON
Even for a small class, Brooksville can throw a big graduation. Seven eighth graders graduated from Brooksville Elementary School on Tuesday, June 16, amidst a sea of Christmas lights, helium balloons and other decorations that they and their parents put up. Potted plants and flowers lined the gymnasium, donated by local nursery C & G Growers, and students’ artwork covered the walls. All the graduates will attend George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill for high school in the fall.
Graduating students read out their “class will” allowing them to bequeath their “love of art” or “athletic ability” to younger peers. Students read a list of “class characteristics”—describing each student appropriately, like “the one that could make anybody laugh.” Graduates exchanged gifts, and showed two slide presentations of “the past” and “the present.”
For their guest speaker, the class chose somebody close to home, music teacher Jennifer Whittaker, who has been with the class since kindergarten. She congratulated and wished the graduates well in high school, after distributing chapstick to them all in commemoration of an inside joke, one of many the class seemed to share.
Not just the school, but also a number of outside organizations, awarded certificates, honors and scholarships. From the school, awards included the creative writing award, science awards, mathematics awards, the social studies award, awards for band, chorus, art, yearbook, technology, civil rights team, the geography bee, the spelling bee, an academic honor award, Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring award and the school service award. There was even a cafeteria award.
The Maryann Snow Bates Foundation, an organization that provides older Brooksville students with funding assistance for college tuition, awarded each student a large hardcover world atlas, to encourage students “to go as far as you can, experience the world and somehow find your way back,” said foundation representative Mike McMillen.
The Buck’s Harbor Yacht Club awarded a check to the grade winner of their annual marine-themed essay contest. The Daughters of the American Revolution gave two awards, one for “historic preservation” and the other for “good citizenship.”
After superintendent Art Wittine, principal Corinne Pert and teachers Joe Devine and Gail Ladd awarded diplomas to the class, cake and punch were served. School officially finished on Friday, June 19, for the remaining grades.
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