Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
BESSEMER'S GRADUATING Class of 2016 flip their tassels to the other side of their caps, symbolizing their graduation, Sunday during the district's commencement ceremony.
BESSEMER - Bessemer's Class of 2016 members are now alumni after the district celebrated its commencement ceremony Sunday at A.D. Johnston High School.
The ceremony featured performances of "Pomp and Circumstance," and "The Star Spangled Banner," before principal Dan VanderVelden delivered opening remarks.
He urged the graduates to reflect on lessons learned from the valuable people in their lives, sharing some lessons he learned from his parents. One of the lessons his father taught him, when playing high school sports, was to always give 100 percent.
"As part of our pre-game routines, he would demand we bring our helmets ... home and he would polish them to an incredible luster," VanderVelden said. "He would ask us to sit down at the table and watch as he was doing this; and he would talk to us about how important it was to give 100 percent every play of the game and by giving 100 percent we are not only helping ourselves - more importantly we are helping the team.
"He would say, 'No matter the outcome, if you can say you gave 100 percent, you did your best.'"
Following VanderVelden's speech and recognition of those who earned academic honors or were in the National Honor Society, student council vice president Rachel Mazurek addressed her fellow graduates.
She recounted the class's journey through high school and the range of emotions many of the graduates were feeling.
Dealing with any fear of the future, Mazurek urged her fellow grads to remember the story of the father buffalo teaching his child about how to face scary things - such as lions. The father said the key to facing a lion is to not run away, but to turn and face the threat.
Following Mazurek's address, the band played "River of Life," after which Madeline and Megan Gabka sang "For Good," from the musical "Wicked."
Then the 27 of the 28 graduates attending the ceremony received their diplomas.
Superintendent Dave Radovich delivered closing remarks and Caitlyn Pelissero offered the benediction, before the graduating class retired to the back of the gymnasium to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance," for the ceremonial tossing of the graduates' caps.
