READFIELD — Maranacook Community High School graduation on Sunday was all about community.
Valedictorian Taylor Watson told the class of 2012 during commencement at the school’s gymnasium that Maranacook was not a normal school, and that anybody who goes or works here could tell you that.
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“Younger than almost any other school in the state, with a powerful advisor system and opportunities to branch out, we are always proud to tell people where we’re from,” Watson said. “However, it isn’t these factors which have been the key to our success as a class. The secret ingredient at Maranacook Community High School is right there in our name — community.”
He said it was the support of the community that gave students the confidence to achieve. Their community extends to four towns the school system served — Readfield, Manchester, Mount Vernon, and Wayne.
He said it is the unity of the region that made this “rambunctious, neighbor-helping, dance-organizing, snow-sculpture winning, trestle-jumping, chair-stacking, circle-occupying class possible.”
“Most students travel at least 15 minutes to get here in the morning,” he said. “Deeper Mount Vernon residents even have to cross time zones just to get to school. In spite of the distance, the bonds we share are stronger than most schools’.”
Families and friends packed into the gymnasium on Sunday to celebrate the end of school for the 105 graduates.
Principal Carol Fritz told the audience that each of them has had a role in the students’ lives. She said they guided students and taught them to think and explore and be kind to others. She urged students to believe in themselves and achieve their goals.
“We are a village,” Fritz said. “Each of us believe in them.”
Guest Speaker Khanh Vo, a parent who Fritz said helped the school preserve memories with photographs, told students to remain a part of a community no matter where they end up.
“You belong to the community, not the other way around,” Vo said. “President John F. Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ Be a volunteer. Don’t wait for someone to ask. Take that first step.”
Ashley Walkate, 19, of Wayne, will be heading of the University of Maine at Farmington in the fall to study psychology. She said it was the guidance of teachers and advisors that helped her make it to this milestone.
“They have a great advisor system here,” she said. “They do a tremendous job getting us through high school. I’m definitely excited about the next step in my life, even though it is sad to leave all these people behind. We have community here.”
Community is behind the success of 18-year-old Korry Vann of Mount Vernon.
Vann was diagnosed at a young age with autism and epilepsy.
His mother, Laura Vann, said doctors said he would never walk or talk or make it past third grade.
“And here he’s graduating a year early as an honor student,” Laura Vann said of her son. “He said, ‘I’m never going to get an F and he never did.”
Vann said since the fifth grade, her son has helped out in the school kitchen. The Maine CareerCenter will be helping him find a job in a kitchen after graduation.
Korry said he is excitedatf the prospect of a job in the culinary world.
“I’m excited to go to work in a kitchen,” Korry Vann said. “It’s pretty kick … You know what word I mean.”
Classmate Teaka Jackson, 18, of Manchester, will be studying architecture at the University of Maine at Augusta and Boston Architectural College.
Jackson said she would miss all the people she bonded with in this tight school community and congratulated the cClass of 2012 for making it this far.
But she had one fear.
“I don’t want to trip when I go up on stage,” Jackson said before the ceremony. “When we practiced, there was this little step that I tripped over and almost fell.”
Mechele Cooper — 621-5663
mcooper@centralmaine.com
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