Sixty graduate from Tupper in Class of 2025
by Dan McClelland
Sixty graduates of the Class of 2025- one of the largest classes in recent years, proudly entered the high school gymnasium Friday, greeted by the smiles and cheers of hundreds of proud parents and family members.
The processional was played in confident fashion by the talented members of the Tupper Lake Middle/High School Band, under the direction of Mrs. Laura Davison. The gym was electric with excitement, as the annual graduation ceremony commenced.
The indoor quarters for the event, which in recent years has been held at least once outdoors at the Rotary Track and Field, was a good choice, given afternoon temperatures hovering in the high 60s and the threat of rain that evening.
Many hands were placed on hearts when Senior Class Members Elli Dukett and Sadie Tower led the crowd in “The Pledge of Allegiance and repeated The Acknowledgment of the Land.
The National Anthem was performed solemnly and tightly by the band and middle/high school chorus.
It was immediately followed by the singing and performing of the district’s Alma Mater song, describing “dear old Tupper.”
Principal Chris Savage welcomed Senior Samantha Flagg to the podium at the end of the gymnasium for some welcoming remarks.
“Welcome to graduation day,” she began. “I’d like to take a moment to congratulate everyone! You did it. You survived late-night study sessions” and other senior challenges. “You overcame the odds and made it here. Let’s be honest...you deserve a medal just for making it through last semester!
She applauded “half the class, including herself” for graduating with honors.
Samantha said her classmates might be feeling both “joy and anxiety...joy because we are finally free from the clutches of exams and homework. She admitted too there will be anxiety, as they prepare for college or the working world.
She took her classmates back to what she called “a simpler time in 2010 or 2011 when they entered the school system and all got to meet each other.
She said she remembered being with her parents and entering the school gym with its rainbow parachute in the middle, with “all the colors of the rainbow floating above us.”
“At that moment I felt like I was at the end of the rainbow!” Samantha said while she didn’t “find the pot of gold” that first day of school, she later found it to be all her classmates in the Class of 2025.
“Because gold is defined as a shiny, precious metal...that is both valuable and precious,” it’s like the important people around her and her classmates.
“I hope at this moment you realize how much people around you define you.”
She gave some advice for her classmates: “As you move forward, do not forget to embrace your mistakes as they make the best story. When in doubt just smile and nod at the people who ask what your plans are! Trust me... you will thank me later!
“So let’s celebrate our achievements together. Here’s to all of you the graduates of today. May your futures be bright and your eyes always open for your next pot of gold!”
Principal Chris Savage was next to address the graduates and the packed crowd in the gym, his first commencement address since becoming principal early in 2024.
For year Chris was a well loved, well respected teacher at L.P. Quinn Elementary School.
“Today I stand before you on this very special evening and I am extremely lucky and grateful. I had the absolutely best group of seniors with me for my first year.
“I had three incredible exchange students with me this year: Iga, Jaeda and Felix. I had a never-ending stream of permission slips for Kiya, Kaylee, Mary and others...I saw Brayden racing down the football field and around the track, and barfing. He offered other comical episodes with the class of his first seniors who started with him in elementary school.
He said he had the opportunity to see many of his senior students like “Nevaeh, Ayden and Sophia grace the school stage. I got to see Emma Kavanagh graduate at the top of her class just like I told her she would in fourth grade. “She told me tonight she doesn’t remember that!”
He said the night was even more special for him that night as he remembers meeting many of the seniors as a teacher at L.P. Quinn Elementary School when they were in fourth grade when “their shoes were a little too big, their back packs were a little too heavy and their questions were a little too endless!”
“Speaking of questions there was a book always taught in his elementary school classes, called “Three Questions,” adapted from a story by Leon Tolstoy. “Some of you may remember those moments in our classrooms when we read this important story and the conversations that followed after it. We talked about what it means to be present and care for the people around us and do the right thing, especially when it’s hard!”
He said that little story often changed how they all felt about each other and how our classroom felt. “It was more than a story. It was a way to live!”
The principal said in the book a boy named Nicolai asked three important questions: when is the best time to make friends, who is the most important one, and what is the right thing to do.
He learns the best time is now, because “it’s the only time we have!”
“And the most important one is the person you are with at that moment and the right thing to do is to be good to that person!”
“As you leave high school and head to our next chapter- work, college, travel, or just taking time to figure things out, you’ll be pulled in many directions. You’ll be encouraged to look ahead, do it faster, quicker, keep chasing the next big thing. But don’t forget those simple truths you learned about so long ago. Now matters. The people in front of you matter. Do good, even if only in small ways.
“Let me say this clearly! This class has lived these values. You’ve pushed yourselves in many areas: on the field, on the stage, in the classroom. This class has earned championships...taken home top honors in music and art. -And reached academic heights that set new standards. You have inspired others. You have lifted one another up. You made this school a better place!
“I hope you remain ever grateful. Good attitude is the most enlightened form of thought! Find the good in every day, the lesson in every experience!
“-And here is something I sincerely hope you remember: “This small mountain town may seem quiet compared with where you are going. But it gave you something special. These mountains surrounding your childhood gave you room to grow up...a little more space...a little more freedom. That strong sense of home. In a way they protected you...your childhood, just by being there.”
He encouraged the graduates to return home often...to spend time with the people who helped, cheered for and supported them.
“Come back and see your old high school principal, who will always be interested in what you’ve been up to...all the incredible things you’ve accomplished. Come back to remind yourself where your story began...”
“Your story is just getting started and from this point on you are the author...you are the hero!”
“Write a story you will be proud of- one filled with courage, kindness and purpose. Remain curious and don’t be afraid to ask the big questions. Show up for others and when the big moment calls for it: Do the right thing!”
“Class of 2025, you are ready to go, ready to leave, ready to return home when you need to, and ready to become the hero of your own story!
He thanked his classmates from the bottom of his heart for the time they spent with him. “Congratulations...we are so proud of you!”
In the Class of 2025 there were a dozen honor students with averages of 90% and above. They were Felix Bodeewes, Campbell Casagrain, Elli Dukett, Samantha Flagg, Sarah Higgins, Emma Kavanagh, Jack LaQuay, Luke Robillard, Sadie Safford, Sophia Staves, Sadie Tower and Jaeda Wigley.