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SALEM – There are three guarantees at a Mt. Abram High School graduation. The seniors will be wearing blue and white. The gymnasium will be sweltering. And the place will be loud.
The crowd, spilling out of the circled bleachers and rows of chairs, cheered when the 76 graduating seniors entered the gym. They roared following a musical tribute to Bea Milewski and gave a standing ovation after a diploma was presented to WWII vet Milton Simmons. But it was after Valedictorian Forrest Collins’ speech, when the young men and women ceased to be students and became graduates, that they nearly blew the roof off.
Sixty-six of the graduates have already made plans to attend college or enlist in the military. Those students were awarded a total of 212 local and state scholarships, for an incredible grand total of $238,075. As is traditional at Mt. Abram, the principal, Brenda Stevens, read the scholarships earned by each student to the audience, who greeted each with more cheers and applause.
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Special presentations included a high school diploma for Simmons, of Kingfield, presented by Rep. Tom Saviello, Rep. Jarrod Crockett, Superintendent Quenten Clark and Stevens. Simmons, who left Kingfield High School in 1942 prior to graduating in order to enlist with the U.S. Army, served under General George Patton as a Private First Class, earning the Bronze Star.
Saviello and Crockett also presented Simmons with an expressions of legislative sentiment and thanks on behalf of the citizens of Maine.
A number of seniors, wearing blue and white robes, left their seats in order to join the graduation band for a musical tribute to MSAD 58 music teacher Bea Milewski, who passed away in 2007. Milewski taught music at Mt. Abram for years, eventually leading a group of 27 students to preform at Universal Studios in Orlando in 2006.
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Collins’ valedictorian’s speech quoted Nelson Mandela, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Jimmy Dean. He asked students to thank their teachers, families and community, and asked them to use the talents they had earned to make the world a better place.
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