HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-07-05, Page 17Huron Christian School
Congratulations
to all the graduates!
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2012. PAGE 17.
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Best Wishes to all the graduating classes
By Craig Vanderglas
How sweet is this, we are the
graduating class of 2012! Sounds
exciting doesn’t it? I thought it did,
but then my brother is graduating
from high school and he is also class
of 2012. There are tons of ‘classes of
2012’ I thought our class was
special, and we are, so we need
something special to distinguish our
class from all the other ‘classes of
2012’. We could be the class of
“ultimate athletes” how does that
sound? We are a pretty athletic
group. After all we did come in first
at district track and field, thanks
coach, and Mitch did break the
school record in the 1,500 metre by
eight seconds and a 29-year record
at district by five seconds. It was
beautiful! How about ‘the first
graduating class of Huron Christian
School’? Yup, we are that too. I
really wanted something with a little
more pizzazz – class of twenty-
twelve? Well, I will refer to our class
as ‘class of 12’ for the remainder of
this speech but, I would like
everyone to think about a good tag
line for our graduating class and get
back to me okay?
Well, ‘class of 12’ I am honoured
to be the valedictorian for our Grade
8 graduating class. It’s quite a
responsibility. I am pretty nervous
standing up here – there are quite a
lot of you out there looking at me. I
really hope I don’t mess up. What I
can say, is that this speech was way
easier in front of the bathroom
mirror!
But I wondered why me? Why did
my class vote me? Several things
came to mind: that maybe they
thought I was intelligent enough to
say something meaningful,
memorable, motivating,
inspirational, or maybe it was my
stunning good looks? I think it’s
because they know that I like to talk,
I know Miss Gerrits knows that I
like to talk.
Yes, I think we can all agree on
that. I believe it was in the comment
section of every report card since I
was in kindergarten.Well, I think we
should go down memory lane a
little. Let’s start out with the saying
“good judgment comes from
experience and experience comes
from bad judgment! ‘Class of 12’,
you have had your fair share of bad
judgment and thus we have learned
from our experiences, or at least
some of them.
What have we learned? We have
learned that there are severe
consequences for picking someone
up by their head. Joel has learned
not to stick his face too close in front
of his potato gun. Joel, we are really
glad you are okay. I have learned
that Miss Gerrits dislikes people
who ‘fiddle fart’ in their
desk….Berean suffers from “cutting
everything up” syndrome, and he got
caught when Miss Gerrits found
erasers on the floor, in people's hair
and in almost everyone's desks.
But when the punishment for our
bad judgment came down the pipes,
we were in an environment of
people that loved us so we learned
from our mistakes – really we had to
sit in detention until we came up
with something that we learned so
sometimes we just had to make it up.
‘Class of 12’, we have had some
great times! Remember the sand box
romance? Keith and Mitch fighting
over Kaitlin? Yes and Kaitlin later
that year rewarded the winner with a
kiss! – (Mitch won).
And we all taught Kevin to smile –
all his younger pictures he looked
grumpy and look at him today with a
big smile on his face. And remember
when the guinea pig ran up Scott’s
leg? He screamed like a little girl
and of course we laughed and
laughed hard! We are boys! Shelby
faked losing her voice so she didn’t
have to answer any questions,
Leanna faked a headache to get out
of class, I think she went outside to
play. Yes,’ class of 12’, we were and
are a pretty sly and creative bunch!
In Grade 6 we all went out and
toilet papered Mr. DeBoer’s car and
Neil wrote ‘just married’ on it.
David, our days of road hockey
are coming to an end, and your high-
sticking days and missing the net are
soon over. Shannon, Lauren and
Alexa are like the three musketeers,
the best of friends in the whole
school.
Kelsey hosted an amazing
Christmas party for the class. Will
you be having parties in high school
Kelsey?
And who got a hattrick against
Strathroy at our hockey tournament
this year? That’s right, Jordan did.
And no matter how much Devon
complained about going on the
Ottawa/Montreal trip, we all knew
that he secretly wanted to go on the
trip. And how would we have
navigated our way in Montreal when
all the subways shut down without
the expert navigational skills of
myself? Miss Gerrits, admit it, you
would have gotten us so lost!
We have had eraser fights, people
have been glued to chairs, fingers
have been caught in the pencil
sharpener, there have been stitches,
we have wrestled each other to the
ground, there have been classroom
romances, there have been
imaginary boyfriends, imaginary
trucks, love notes in lockers and
we’ve done it all. What makes it all
special? These memories are ours
and they happened with the people
we care about, that’s why they are
special.Yes, we had some good
times at this school!! Thank you to
the ‘class of 12’!
Next, let me acknowledge the
backbone of our school, that without
this person, the school would not run
like the ‘well-oiled machine’ that it
does, our school would shut down
and couldn’t survive.
Mr. Nyman: This one man has
cleaned up after us day after day.
Without him our desks would be
covered in glue stick glue and the
radiators would be covered in
melted crayons. He cleaned up after
me through most of my career here.
I don’t even get that kind of respect
at home. Mr. Nyman, thank you!
A huge thank you to all the
teachers and administration. During
our stay here we have had the
pleasure of being taught by Mrs.
Soer, Miss Horneman (now Mrs.
Dekens), Miss Bechtel, Mrs.
DeJager, Mr. Huls, Mrs. Kuiper, Mr.
DeBoer and Miss Gerrits (three
times, Grade 5, Grade 7 and Grade
8), Mr. Bos, Mr. Heilkema and Mr.
Gelyense and many EAs. If I have
missed anyone, I apologize. Just
as the mission statement says, all
of you have provided us
with exceptional Christ-centred
education, you treated us as children
of God who have a place in His plan,
Vanderglas ponders name for graduating class
Huron Christian School’s graduates
Huron Christian School held its annual year-end graduation ceremony on Thursday, June 21.
This year’s graduating class is, back row, from left: David Rether, Jordan Verburg, Mitchell
Heyink and Joel Branderhorst. Middle row, from left: Kevin Vanderlaan, Neil Ball, Keith
Poortinga, Devon Sjaarda, Scott VanDorp, Craig Vanderglas and Berean McMichael. Front
row, from left: Alexa Cuellar, Shelby Greidanus, Kaitlin Bos, Lauren Bos, Shannon Siertsema,
Kelsey Dykstra and Leanna VanWyk. (Shawn Loughlin photo)Continued on page 20