The ranks of high school graduates grew by 107 following commencement exercises held Sunday afternoon. Greene County High School graduated 94 students at the middle school gym. Thirteen students graduated from Paton-Churdan High School.
Greene County senior class president Wade Weubker encouraged his classmates not to judge people, to live in the moment, not to forget where they came from, and to “always hug your mother.”
Guest speaker was Kristi Kinne Hayes, Jefferson-Scranton Class of 1991. Hayes still holds the game scoring average (52 points) in Ram basketball. She scored more than 1,500 points playing basketball at Drake University and went on to coach at the University of Iowa and Oklahoma.
Hayes used The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon as the starting place for her comments. She shared answers to the questions “Who’s driving your bus?” and “Who’s on your bus with you?” from her own experience in battling ovarian cancer.
She suggested to the new graduates that they drive their own bus, take care of the people on their bus, and be the sort of person someone else would want on his or her bus. “Your life is a reflection of the choices you make,” she told the graduates.
Tommy Bradshaw was recognized with a standing ovation as the only graduate entering military service. Bradshaw has enlisted in the Iowa Air National Guard.
Class valedictorian is Reid Lamoureux, son of Jeff and Jill Lamoureux. Salutatorians are Lakota Larson, daughter of Loel and Sandy Larson, and Maxwell Neese, son of Alan and Katherine Neese.
At Paton-Churdan, Tabby Consier was honored as valedictorian and Noah Juergensen was honored as salutatorian.
Graduate Joe Thede has enlisted in the Iowa National Guard. He plans to attend Buena Vista University.
