Viewfinder: 2011 Enumclaw High School Graduation

The Enumclaw High School graduation took place Monday night at the White River Amphitheatre. 

As she announced the honor awards and described the scholarships presented to the outgoing seniors, Principal Jill Burnes said that in total, local businesses and individuals contributed $107,380 in scholarship money to these students; and state and national scholarships provided an additional $680,102 in financial support for the continuing education of Enumclaw High School's Class of 2011.

The following is a wrap-up of the graduation ceremony provided by senior Sam Horn:

These past 13 years of schooling have gone by so quickly.  It seemed like yesterday I was boarding the bus for the first day of kindergarten!  Graduating from high school is a great honor, and I am looking forward to further pursuing my interests in college.  The graduation ceremony was held at the White River Amphitheater.  Emotional families filled the seats waiting to watch their children who they’ve raised for the past 17 years walk across the stage to receive the diploma they’ve worked so hard to obtain.

The ceremony started off with the Enumclaw High School Wind Ensemble escorting every graduating senior to their seats.  Once everyone was seated, the senior class officers, Senior Class President Molly Hughes and Vice President Aubrey Flintoff, welcomed everybody who was sitting in the stands and thanked them for attending the Enumclaw’s 2011 graduation ceremony.  The senior choir then took center stage and sang a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner which made the audience proud to be Americans.

Soon after the Star Spangled Banner was sung, two members of the choir, Carson Johnson and Amy Carpenter, sang On My Way in perfect harmony, and performed brilliantly.  Once the two girls finished their song, Molly Roe and Abby French stepped up to the podium and read aloud a poem entitled Dream Big.  This poem symbolized how if people can dream it, they can do it.  For instance, if you dream about being a sports star, then there’s nothing that will stop you from accomplishing that goal.  While there might be bumps in the road, they will stand no chance to knock you down from what you are pursuing.

Alexander Unguez then sang You Raise Me Up, which told seniors to be sure to thank their parents for doing what they’ve done to get their kids this far in life.  It was a very touching song, because I thought to myself, ‘my parents deserve a lot of credit because they really have encouraged me into becoming the man I am today.’  

Jillian Welsh then read her speech called We Are Class of 2011.  This speech really affected me, because Jillian was thanking the entire class of 2011 for being such a great and fun class to share memories with.  I know that the class of 2011 at Enumclaw High School was a great class, because they excelled at academics, sports and everything in between.

The awarding of the diplomas then took place and was the highlight of the program and was a very memorable experience.  Walking across the stage to receive my diploma was very emotional.  I thought back on all the hard work I had done to receive this great honor and thought to myself it was definitely worth it.  As someone once said, “The tassel’s worth the hassle.”  This quote certainly holds true in my life and I look forward to completing more goals in order to get further in life, like obtaining a degree in both journalism and music from Pacific Lutheran University.

Do you have additional photos from the night's celebration? Patch invites you to post them to this story and help provide a collaborative photo gallery for the community to look back on this momentous occasion and celebrate these students and their achievements.