Sisters graduates step into the future

One hundred and twenty-seven seniors took the final passage in their public school education at the 57th commencement of Sisters High School on Friday, June 3, before the largest crowd in school history.

Principal Bob Macauley welcomed everyone and shared briefly his praise of the class before deferring to senior class president Seann Igoe. Igoe thanked Superintendent Ted Thonstad and Board Chairman Glen Lasken for their leadership and service to the school community and presented the senior gift, a permanent placard posted on the gymnasium wall of the words to the school fight song.

Iris Powell and Shane Conner shared their rendition of Green Day’s classic “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” before salutatorian Ford Bauer entertained and inspired the crowd with his speech.

Bauer shared memories as far back as his kindergarten days and thanked his classmates and community for helping form him into the person he is today.

“It’s hard for me to tell an ‘out-of-towner’ that I’m from Sisters without spending half an hour trying to explain to them how a town with only 1,080 people can be such a unique and special community to live in. I’m proud to know the people from Sisters High School,” he said.

Ezra Patterson gave the first of two valedictory addresses and exhorted his classmates to move beyond conformity and recognize the ability of individuals, “like drops of water in the ocean,” to affect change.

Patterson reflected back on a time as a freshman in which the class participated in trust activities that he found pointless at the time. He came to fully realize how much he had changed since then when, at the senior retreat, he once again stood holding the hands of classmates as they gathered in a circle to acknowledge one another.

“As I peered into each of your eyes, I realized something. I realized how close we all are and how every one of us is so drastically different and unique,” he said. “This individuality is exactly what gives us all the potential to not only do something great, but to be something great.”

Brianna Wellman focused most of her address on thanking those who influenced her the most, from faculty and coaches to her parents, siblings and friends. She concluded with encouraging words including, “Believe in the incredible power of the human mind; of doing something that makes a difference; of working hard and laughing and hoping.”

The traditional presentation of flowers by graduates to parents and a slide show of “then and now” pictures set the stage for the presentation of diplomas.

Principal Macauley proceeded to deliver 105 Sisters High School diplomas and 22 State of Oregon diplomas and after he presented the class of 2005 the graduates moved briskly into adulthood to a rousing recessional of the Outlaw Fight Song.

Seventy-six graduates (60 percent) received the Certificate of Initial Mastery and 34 (30 percent) were honors graduates (3.5 GPA).