Their Wings Fully Developed, Shelton High Grads Take Flight

Shelton High School's Class of 2013 compiled a long list of memories over the past four years. Class trips to Italy, France and Spain. Helping charities like Habitat for Humanity, Spooner House and the American Red Cross.

Its student athletes excelled in their sports with the girls soccer team winning its first Class LL State Championship in 2010 and the baseball team ending its 36 year championship drought two years later, according to Senior Class President John Tice.

"We came in with wings that needed to be developed and we have come here with wings fully grown," Tice said from the stage on the school football field, while serving as Master of Ceremonies for the 2013 Commencement Thursday.

Valedictorian, Kristen Grabarz, noted how not even Hurricane Sandy, the Mayan prediction of the end of the world nor "Storm Nemo" could stop her class from making it to this day.

"We're orange and I'm not talking about a pre-graduation tanning going ghastly wrong," she joked when talking about the school's color.

Grabarz spoke of the orange glow of morning sunshine and said the color symbolizes "hope, possibility and renewal".

Though finding orange lockers will be hard to come by, Grabarz told her classmates to always try to embrace their inner orange. 

Maturity, Belief & Special Sauce 

Carolyn Rennie, the Senior Class Essayist, joked about how they all arrived as freshmen four years ago, "short with backpacks and braces," and added they are now leaving as mature adults.

She praised her class for overcoming "severe districtwide budget cuts" that nearly cost their school its sports programs.

Salutatorian Joseph Stein said that, while intelligence and hard work can allow people to achieve lofty goals, belief in one's self often makes the difference.

"Belief is comparable to the yeast that makes bread rise and the special sauce that makes a Big Mac so tasty," he said, causing laughter among his classmates looking on in their caps and gowns.

A Rocky Road to Oz

On behalf of the entire city, Mayor Mark Lauretti extended congratulations to the young men and women of the Class of 2013 on "a job well done". He told the crowd that his son Joe was graduating with them that day and how his other children also graduated from Shelton High School.

One bit of advice the mayor left the graduates with was, "Do not spend more than your ability to pay."

"I wish you Godspeed as the caretakers of our future," Lauretti closed.

Mark Holden, chairman of the Board of Education, told the class to dream, plan and work hard.

Supt. of Schools Freeman Burr reminded the graduates that great things are not easily achieved and when something is, it's usually fleeting. He said greatness takes effort and commitment to the task — and the ability to cope with setbacks.

Burr said, "There's no such thing as a paved yellow brick road leading to Oz."