L.P. Quinn graduates treated to a parade ceremony, gifts

by Rich Rosentreter

The L.P. Quinn Elementary School Class of 2020 was treated to a Family Car Parade on June 16 as part of their 6th Grade Moving Up Celebration as these youngsters will now move on to the middle-high school in the fall.

The ceremony took place with two phases, the first being a virtual program at 6 p.m. on Youtube that featured the graduates in photos ranging from outdoor and other adventures to family poses and candid shots of the student. Following the photographic tribute, District Superintendent Seth McGowan gave a virtual speech.

“It’s my hope that we never have to do it like this again,” he told the graduating “moving up” class. “Having said that, I want to acknowledge that there were many interesting educational things that happened during the past few months and I want to acknowledge the hard work of your teachers in your school for all of their hours and planning during that time, and in particular I want to thank them for putting tonight’s event together for you - that took an additional many, many hours of hard work and planning.”

“At some point, please make sure they know just how grateful you are, after all, without them you wouldn’t be going to the middle-high school next year at all.”

Mr. McGowan – with a screen of a star-lit sky in the background - then said he wanted to talk about the wilderness in his message to the students.

“We often talk about the wilderness as our immediate surroundings and for us it’s this great Adirondack Park in which we live. It’s filled with fresh air and beauty. But sometimes we get nose blind to it, just like in those Febreze plug-in commercials. I want to remind you never to forget to look at it with fresh eyes and smell it with a fresh nose each and every day. And if it’s dark outside, you can always cast your eyes at the great wilderness above – the sky,” Mr. McGowan said. “Nature doesn’t necessarily end at the tree line. We’re a part of the largest nature center in the universe, and it’s name? The universe. All that we are, and all that exists on our planet, including everything in Tupper Lake, everything in L.P. Quinn and everything inside of you, came from out there at some point, and it’s always free to look up, so please do.”

“The reason I mention this as your time at L.P. Quinn draws to an end, is that we shouldn’t lament about not seeing the trees when it gets dark, instead we should celebrate because we can now see the universe,” he said. “While the end of the year has been different for you, there were many new and exciting things that happened. You were the pioneers of this time, and if you do it right, you’ll take those experiences with you to the next stage of your life at the middle-high school, and I’m sure you will.”

“Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars,” he ended, coining a phrase by Casey Kasem. (Look that name up).

The parade

Then the next phase - the Family Car Parade started around 7 p.m. at the Wild Center where cars full of family members and the graduating students – who were sporting Class of 2020 T-shirts - lined up for the drive up the block to the elementary school. As the entourage made its way up Hosley Avenue led by a school bus, the vehicles carrying graduates beeped the entire time from the Wind Center to the spot where faculty and administrators lined the front of the elementary school.

One by one, the 50-plus cars pulled in front to the waving school personnel, including Mr. McGowan and Business Manager Dan Bower. Traffic flow was well under control on the avenue with the help of the Tupper Lake Police Department. Each vehicle in the procession drove past the school front where they received a heroes welcome – plenty of clapping, yelling, waving and smiles – along with a gift bag of goodies that was handed to them by teachers, some of them giving words of praise and encouragement to the grads.

The continuous serenading sounds of horns beeping made the entire event feel like a festive celebration – and the balloons and décor on many of the vehicles certainly helped the celebratory mood.

And the huge smiles adorning the faces of the Class of 2020 didn’t hurt either.