Grad night 2015 Green River High/Emery High

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

It was graduation night in Emery County on May 21. Green River and Emery High held their graduation ceremonies at their respective schools. In Green River, Corbin Mecham welcomed everyone to the program. Logan Spadafora the class Salutatorian addressed the audience.
Spadafora said, “Thanks to all who have aided us. Teachers have impacted our lives, for our education. Teachers jobs do not end when the bell rings. They donate their time. Teachers are people too, and they make mistakes, they are not out to get us. Mr. Gowans has treated me with genuine kindness, even though he has quite a few reasons to dislike me.”
Spadafora went on to relate an incident about one of the helpers, who was coming to class to help them write poetry and then put it in a book. They always give Mr. Gowans a hard time because he’s single, so Logan took it upon himself to help him out. They kept telling him his mail order bride was coming. Logan brought cake on two plates and had them facing each other for when Mr. Gowans met the poetry teacher, needless to say Mr. Gowans wasn’t too happy with Logan and told him to get that food out of his class.
Logan thanked the school secretary Sheri Vetere for adopting all of them. She’s like their second mom. “We are onto bigger and better things, once a Pirate, always a Pirate. Logan said Dr. Seuss said, you may never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.
Sheri Vetere, school secretary was the next speaker. She said the class has given her quite a bit of grief, but as the class is prone to say, “it will all buff out,” The class motto is why do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Which was one of the reasons, they didn’t get their class photo.
“This class has had a lot of fun together, they are a small class and they are like brothers and sisters. Growing up in Green River is a privilege. When I was first hired as secretary, this class was the first one that came through as seventh graders. Mr. Johnson has been their principal their entire school life. He is an amazing principal,”
Vetere said this class had nicknames for everyone in their class. Some including, Mindy Sue, Shorty, Otter Pop, GiGi, TK, Corbe, Eeor, Go-op, Echo, to name a few. “This class has a bond with each other. I call them sunshine. Strive to achieve your dreams, never settle for OK, you can achieve. I expect you to shine, have a great life and keep in touch. I will close with a quote by Richard Paul Evans, ‘If only I could hold onto this moment, but to hold the note is to spoil the song. It’s your time,” said Vetere.
We came as strangers and left as friends was the closing statement for the slide show. The slide show featured each student with pictures of them in their growing up years.
Principal Nolan Johnson spoke next. He said he too had been given a nickname by this class, Corbin calls him Papa J. So Principal Johnson decided to just go with it, because he didn’t have much control over it anyway.
Principal Johnson turned to face the graduates to speak to them, because he said some people have a good side and a bad side, but he has neither so it didn’t matter. He told the graduates that school does not end, if they keep taking classes they can learn a lot. But, from now on they get to choose what they want to do. He encouraged them not to waster their time and may the force be with you. “Get to work,” said Principal Johnson.
Nick Corrigan the class Valedictorian was the concluding speaker. He said the class had a lot of fun and played a lot of jokes on each other. He said he was never quick enough to think of anything to get back at people, so he was going to mention a few things in his speech. He remembered the time, Dakota Wetherington was hit in the head by a dirt clod in elementary school; Corbin Mecham was not a gentle giant and was responsible for more than one injury, one time Eeor, was looking out the bus window on a trip to Bryce Valley and swore he saw a moose which turned out to be a horse; Bailey spilled, broccoli and cheese soup all over her dad’s truck. Nick said Jon Mendez messes up words a lot and one day he was very sad, and they asked him what was wrong and he said, his dog was stepped on by a tire, one time Logan Spadafora brought a knife to school and somehow in the course of the day, Tristan ended up with a cut. Hunter was always mooching food from people and Nick tricked him one time he was taking bites of Nick’s sandwich. One time at Hogle Zoo, Kyle Johnson kicked a peacock and it disappeared. One time there was a puddle in the lunch room in elementary school and TJ Hughes got down real close to it and then proudly announced, Yup, it’s pee guys.
Jon Mendez is an unlucky guy, one time he cut a hole in his pants in art and Autumn laughed at him. One time Jon was making Gisselle mad so she stabbed him with a pencil and he still has the lead in his arm to prove it. In one girl fight someone dumped pop on Gisselle’s head.
“Dakota has a strange love for Mindy, so we’ll just call her Mrs. Wetherington. Of course, I was the perfect child. This was the perfect chance to get back at them. I love you guys, like a second family. We ran this school the last couple of years, now go out and run the world,” said Corrigan.
Graduating class members include: Mindy Sue Bastian, Nicholas Richard Corrigan, Gisselle Espinoza Quintana, Autumn Nicole Gardner, Thomas John Hughes, Lenard Kyle Johnson, Hunter Ray Jones, Tristen Kalynn Lehnhoff, Corbin Guy Mecham, Bailey Deane Norman, Chance Lee Pfander, Keisha Marie Spadafora, Logan Shane Spadafora, Dakota Derek Wetherington.