Students show teachers their appreciation

Logan View Public School teachers were singled out during the high school graduation ceremonies just north of here Sunday afternoon.

Logan View Class of 2008 Valedictorian Steven Ready paid tribute to the school district’s -- in particularly the high school’s -- teachers in his commencement ceremony speech.

“Without your desire to teach, we would not be here,” Ready said. “You have given us more than we can ever repay.”

But Ready wasn’t the only speaker to honor the teachers.

“I want to thank our teachers for creating doors and windows for us to walk through,” said class president Kelsey Arp in her welcoming address. “Without you, we would walk into walls.”

Arp went on to say that the 68-member Class of 2008 were a pallet of different personalities.

“We’re all very different,” she said. “That’s why sometimes we haven’t gotten along. I see us like a puzzle with very different shapes, but in the end we all come together.”

Class salutatorian Danielle Mowinkel described this school year as a year of lasts. It marks the last time they will do most of the activities associated with high school.

“But it’s also an opening for new beginnings,” Mowinkel said. “We all have special memories of Logan View. Some how, some way, together we have made it into our caps and gowns. Since the beginning we have wanted it all, but we learned patience and gained the skills to graduate.”

Ready said they now move out “of the protective shell of high school and move into independence.”

The past 13 years have molded them into the people and students they are now, he said. In the next 13 years, they will become doctors, lawyers, teachers, mothers and fathers.

“Life will be full of obstacles and obligations,” he continued. “We have spent the last 13 years of our lives preparing for this day. Our parents have done their part. Now, it is time for us to do ours. Let’s continue to make ourselves and our parents proud.”

In addressing the graduating class, Logan View Public Schools superintendent Jeffrey Edwards said he believes in each of the students who received their diplomas.

“Each of you has the ability to change the world around you,” he said.

School board president Greg Hoegermeyer told the graduating seniors that they each have the abilities to gain success in their lives.

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to notice,” Hoegermeyer said.

He compared those potential successes with the actions of a turtle.

“A turtle has to stick his head out to move forward. You will have to do the same.”