(June 8, 2017) “For the next few moments — my former students will have to forgive me — as I look at you and see the children in my class,” Dee Buchly, keynote speaker of Snow Hill High School’s June 1 commencement and retired music teacher at Snow Hill Elementary, began her keynote speech congratulating the class of 2017.
She then asked the group of 83 graduates if they remembered, and leaving the question open, used one of the cards that held her remarks to shield her face from their view. The audience could see she had a kazoo, and as she blew a single ascending note, the graduates reacted.
Seemingly without knowing it themselves, and certainly without any prompting from Buchly beyond the note, about half of the class stood up. Buchly then blew a descending note, and they all returned to their seats.
“Let me look at you again, and see you as young adults discovering their talents and gifts,” she said.
Buchly retired from Snow Hill Elementary in 2010 — well after this group of seniors began school in pre-Kindergarten, and clearly remembered some things about the students that they had forgotten about themselves.
She began recalling past musical numbers and performances by members of the class while they were her students. If one of the graduates tried to escape recognition, Buchly called on that person by name, to the delight of the several hundred in the audience as well as the others watching in an overflow room in another part of the school.
It was a bit of good-natured fun that developed the themes of the evening for both the graduates and the audience: a sense of home, a sense of kindness and gratitude.
As graduate Laura Short, following in her mother’s footsteps as 2017 Old Home Prize winner, read from her essay detailing life in Snow Hill, she noted that the one-stoplight town would always be where the class was from, and even if they left home for a while, their future struggles would always mimic the lengths residents would go to in order to avoid stopping at that one light.
Graduate Gianna Pesaniello sang “Wind Beneath My Wings" to the audience, but it was unclear if she was addressing her classmates, the teachers and administrators, or the collected friends and family in attendance.
Superintendent Lou Taylor also remarked on the themes when he referenced an article he read in the New York Times about a particular student who stood out among his peers, not because of athletic prowess or popularity or intellect, but because he’s received a letter of recommendation to college from his school’s custodian.
Taylor recalled the letter noting how this student knew the names of all the support staff at the school and regularly engaged them in conversation regardless of clout, standing or popularity.
“I smile at the knowledge of the number of students we have just like this example,” he said.
Nearly one-third of the graduates earned some form of distinct honor at the ceremony, from National Honor Society to Certificates of Merit, and dozens of them earned some form of scholarship, with many of them winning several.
As for future plans, the schools reported the new graduates would be attending about 20 different colleges, universities, schools or military service, including local options such as Salisbury University and UMES, to places like Western Kentucky University and the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco.
She then asked the group of 83 graduates if they remembered, and leaving the question open, used one of the cards that held her remarks to shield her face from their view. The audience could see she had a kazoo, and as she blew a single ascending note, the graduates reacted.
Seemingly without knowing it themselves, and certainly without any prompting from Buchly beyond the note, about half of the class stood up. Buchly then blew a descending note, and they all returned to their seats.
“Let me look at you again, and see you as young adults discovering their talents and gifts,” she said.
Buchly retired from Snow Hill Elementary in 2010 — well after this group of seniors began school in pre-Kindergarten, and clearly remembered some things about the students that they had forgotten about themselves.
She began recalling past musical numbers and performances by members of the class while they were her students. If one of the graduates tried to escape recognition, Buchly called on that person by name, to the delight of the several hundred in the audience as well as the others watching in an overflow room in another part of the school.
It was a bit of good-natured fun that developed the themes of the evening for both the graduates and the audience: a sense of home, a sense of kindness and gratitude.
As graduate Laura Short, following in her mother’s footsteps as 2017 Old Home Prize winner, read from her essay detailing life in Snow Hill, she noted that the one-stoplight town would always be where the class was from, and even if they left home for a while, their future struggles would always mimic the lengths residents would go to in order to avoid stopping at that one light.
Graduate Gianna Pesaniello sang “Wind Beneath My Wings" to the audience, but it was unclear if she was addressing her classmates, the teachers and administrators, or the collected friends and family in attendance.
Superintendent Lou Taylor also remarked on the themes when he referenced an article he read in the New York Times about a particular student who stood out among his peers, not because of athletic prowess or popularity or intellect, but because he’s received a letter of recommendation to college from his school’s custodian.
Taylor recalled the letter noting how this student knew the names of all the support staff at the school and regularly engaged them in conversation regardless of clout, standing or popularity.
“I smile at the knowledge of the number of students we have just like this example,” he said.
Nearly one-third of the graduates earned some form of distinct honor at the ceremony, from National Honor Society to Certificates of Merit, and dozens of them earned some form of scholarship, with many of them winning several.
As for future plans, the schools reported the new graduates would be attending about 20 different colleges, universities, schools or military service, including local options such as Salisbury University and UMES, to places like Western Kentucky University and the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco.