The 17 graduating Gresham High School students only numbered 16 until the very end of the ceremony.
As diplomas were being awarded in the school gym Friday, Austin Olsen quickly changed into his gown and brought up the rear, joining the graduates after competing in a WIAA sectional track meet.
Principal Keary Mattson described the class as very helpful, doing things such as shoveling snow and mopping hallways. He told them their lives were before them with education or jobs.
“If you believe you can’t, you’re right and you won’t, but if you believe you can, you will,” Mattson said.
Receptionist and softball coach Amanda Reindl was voted guest speaker by the students.
“What can I tell you that you don’t think you already know,” Reindl began.
She went on to tell them to remember the good times and the bad times.
“You are 17 individuals,” she said. “You all do amazing things. Never stop exploring things about life and yourselves.”
Salutatorian Tana Jensen said nearly everyone in the class has been together since preschool and gave a personal comment about each one. She will be attending Brigham Young University in Idaho.
“We made it,” Jensen said. “We are actually graduating. I will miss every one of you guys.”
Valedictorian Lindsay Anderson, who is going to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, talked about and quoted the book, “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.
The book, she said, teaches the alphabet along with three other things — never give up, it’s OK to ask for help and always be your best.
“We all have people in our lives who are willing to help us,” Anderson said. “If we don’t dream of getting to the top, we will remain at the bottom for the rest of our lives.”
Scholarships in the amount of $46,450 were handed out to the graduates.
Several members of the Class of 1964 were honored guests.
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