Past, future highlight BFHS graduation speeches

BONNERS FERRY —Unsettled weather and thunderstorms prompted school districts officials to move the Bonners Ferry High School graduation ceremony into a muggy middle school gym on Saturday, May 30.

Close to 100 seniors received diplomas in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

After words of encouragement by principal Tim Gering, who kept a box of tissues on the podium to help soak up his own tears at seeing his twin daughters, salutatorian Hannah and valedictorian Chloe graduate, speeches were given.

The Gering girls shared the podium for their speeches, and valedictorians Kimberly Kramer, Jacob Perkins and Mackenzie Mendenhall shared their thoughts with their classmates, as well as salutatorian Savannah Woods and class president Chase Dinning before keynote speaker Craig Anderson took the podium.

Woods quoted great thinkers for her speech, including Socrates, Confucius and others, adapting president Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address to open, saying, “Half a score and eight years ago, your parents brought forth on this continent, a little monster, conceived in hopefulness, and dedicated to the proposition that all children are created special...”

Hannah Gering left her classmates with the wisdom that being a good kid was not a bad thing, and both Gering girls spoke on the upheaval

and learning experience that constituted changing high schools halfway through and graduating as “the principal’s kid.”

Kramer extolled the virtues of the lazy person, ironic for the hard-working valedictorian, saying that the lazy person was truly the most efficient person of all, working hard to avoid work.

Reminiscing on the past and looking to the future were a theme in all the speeches.

Perkins had possibly the most appreciated speech of all, lasting only a couple of minutes, a relief for the sweaty crowd of onlookers vainly waving their programs in an attempt to cool off. Speaking to the students all year at pep rallies and other events, there wasn’t much left to say, he said.

Mendenhall delivered a touching poem that reminisced on her time at BFHS and pondered on the futures of her classmates.

“If its been done, do it your way,” she said. “Don’t start with ‘just,’ end with ‘and.’”

Keynote speaker Craig Anderson described the mural that surrounds his classroom doorway, talking about the mark his students have left on him and everyone they have touched, and the infinite possibilities ahead of them.

After the procession of students receiving their diplomas, caps were tossed in the air and students exited the rear of the gym to douse each other with colored chalk, a move that was planned for the outdoor arena of the football field.

Graduates were kind enough to custodial staff and the stifled crowd to avoid slinging their chalk until they had exited the building. The result was colorful and dramatic.

Anderson, who is the BFHS English and life sciences teacher, encouraged the students to move forward.

“I’m holding the door open, and these guys are charging through it,” he said.