6The May 28, Mineral County eighth grade promotion brought family and friends to the decorated Jr. High Auditorium in honor of their student’s achievements.  As the 31 nicely dressed students, (which are the Class of 2019) respectfully entered the room, they walked down the middle aisle-way in two’s; their buffered excitement apparent.  Miss Casey Huston opened with a lovely vocal of The Star Spangled Banner, following the Color Guard processional.

Through the welcome by Mr. John Gavin and the class history and aspirations shared by McKenna Cardenas and Claudia Benton, the recipients remained tuned into the evenings honor.  But it was Mrs. Kee that faced the class in a presentation directed to each of them.  Emotions were stirred as she shared what she hoped she had taught them individually and what they had taught her personally. It was a tremendous speech which conveyed to each student the value in which they had experienced in attending school.

Completing the evening with their certificates, congratulatory handshakes and a candid slide show, the farewell address was completed by Mr. Waggoner.  In perfect form they stood to leave their seating, with applause filling the room as each name was rendered by members of the audience, and photo ops were taken.
Following the promotional ceremonies, the kids had a celebration party held at the USO Convention Center.  It was decorated with black light decor, face painting, glowing balloons and moving decorations that were as lively as the kids themselves, who were dancing and singing to the recorded music.  Organized games and food items topped off the list.

Destany Kohl-Merritt said, “The best part of my Jr. High was making new friends.  I moved here from Tacoma, Wash. in October 2014 and they all accepted me and became the best people I know. I’m really looking forward to being a Serpent now and playing volleyball.”

Christopher Newby said, “I’ll remember the hallway – it was our fun area.  I can’t wait for the restrictions from the assemblies and pep stuff to drop off now.  It’ll be fun to go out for lunchtime too.  Even though we were at the school, it didn’t feel we were part of it yet.  Now we will be.”

Samantha Gavin had her glow-in-the-dark word of LOVE drawn on her arm, as she stated, “I will miss my friends that are under us.  We had classes with them all, but now we move on and we won’t see them as much.  I think graduation will be good too, and then college.”  Samantha was just learning that college classes were available at the high school level which could be obtained during her next four years to get a jump on it all.  Her friend encouraged her to do it stating Samantha was smart enough to try it.