While the class of 2016 might have been "winging it" this spring, the class put vast amounts of hard work and dedication into academics, activities and sports.
This senior class chose to "decorate" the school on the first day of class in 2015 to welcome the rest of the students to Bayfield High School, remembered Principal Leon Hanhardt during his remarks at commencement excercies on Sunday. The class also periodically performed a "senior snuggle," sort of a class-wide group hug, he remembered. And there are the students who rappelled the side of the building and changed the sign from "Bayfield Performing Arts Center" to performing farts center. So yes, in some regards, the class has been "winging it" this year.
It's also the class that has produced some top academics, including Valedictorian Frankie Turner, who has received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Braxton Newkirk, a state champion in Skills USA cabinetmaking who travels to national competition this summer. The art, drama and music students in the class also have won a slew of awards, and the Knowledge Bowl seniors have led their team to place at state for several years.
Oh, and there was a state football championship last fall, Hanhardt announced to a roar of crowd approval.
Hanhardt asked the faculty to stand for a round of applause. Then the students' parents and guardians stood up, and the Class of 2016 brought them a purple iris and a hug.
Erin Carlson gave the salutatorian address, urging her classmates not to reject those different from us, but to embrace their differences.
It's easy to mistrust what we don't know, "but what is easy is not always right," she said. "Let's celebrate each others' victories." Carlson is planning to attend Colorado State University.
In his valedictorian address, Turner joked that he met this great girl three years ago when he moved to Colorado. She introduced him to a lot of people and shared a lot of good times.
Last week, the relationship died, he said. "We're pretty much done," Turner explained. "This girl's name is Bayfield High School." He thanked his fellow players on the football team "for giving me one of these!" he said as he proudly displayed his state championship ring.
Sydney Milner, one of the class presidents, announced the class gift to the school: two water bottle refilling stations to go in the hallways.
In his commencement address, Lee Frazer, a professor of outdoor education at Fort Lewis College, also urged the almost-graduates to get out of their comfort zones.
"Embark on your own adventure," he said. "Take a risk. If you risk nothing, you do nothing."
The senior slide show presented photos of the grads as young children, then their senior portraits. At the end, several pictures of the classmates in preschool, kindergarten and elementary school followed.
There was also a picture of Shaniah Farmer, who would have graduated with the class of 2016. She died in 2011 in an auto crash in Texas. Her framed volleyball photo also sat in a chair in the front row of graduates, along with a purple mortarboard and a graduation medal. Most of her classmates had "Shine on Shaniah" stickers on their caps, as well. The graduation medals had an image of "Class of 2016" on one side and "Maddie Smiles" on the other. This was in rememberance of Madeline Milner, the sister of their classmate Sydney, who died in a skiing accident in 2010.
A thunderstorm and rain filled the gymnasium with crashing echoes during the speeches, but the storm cleared out by the end of the 90-minute ceremony.
Graduates and their families gathered outside for photographs and hugs, then began moving on to celebratory parties.
