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Hubbard's St. Patrick School graduates 15 kindergartners
By emmalee c. TORISK
hubbard
Barbara Bond has taught kindergarten at the St. Patrick School for four years, but this year’s group of 15, including two sets of twins, just happens to be the most “wiggly, squiggly little class” she’s had yet.
At the kindergarten class’ graduation ceremony, held in the church’s parish center Monday morning, Bond described her kindergartners as “being warm and secure” in their chrysalises, or their protective shells. This year’s graduating class in particular has been held “perhaps a bit snugly at times,” she said.
“They’ve emerged from their chrysalis strong, beautiful and ready to fly,” Bond said. “They’re now schoolchildren ready to go forth and learn what they need to learn in their elementary school years.”
One of those children is 7-year-old Anastiya Costello, whose parents — Sam and Katie Costello of Hubbard — adopted her from Vladivostok, Russia, in 2008.
At Monday’s ceremony, Anastiya concluded her second, and final, year of kindergarten at the school. She’s had Bond for both years, and it will be hard for Anastiya to leave her teacher behind, Katie Costello said.
A long-standing tradition at St. Patrick School, the ceremony is a milestone for the kindergartners, as it marks their successful transition into elementary school, Bond said.
Principal Cindy Lacko opened Monday’s event by welcoming all in attendance to a special moment in their kindergartners’ lives.
“The ceremony finalizes them moving on to first grade,” she said. “As a group, we saw so much growth in them over the year.”
The kindergartners were then escorted into the parish center by their eighth-grade buddies, with whom they’ve shared the school year. As a language-arts assignment, the eighth-graders each wrote stories about their kindergarten buddies, then presented them as graduation gifts during the ceremony, Bond said.
In addition, the graduates recited a morning offering and two poems, and performed three songs under the direction of Joan Deramo, their music teacher. Lacko presented graduates with their diplomas, and Bond offered a summer blessing to them.
In closing, Father Tim O’Neill, pastor of St. Patrick Parish, thanked the kindergartners’ parents and grandparents for sending their children to Catholic school — and especially to the St. Patrick School.
O’Neill referred back to the ceremony’s opening song, “Happiness.”
“We confuse happiness and pleasure. Happiness is only a by-product of unselfish giving,” O’Neill said. “The people sitting in their seats, the parents and the grandparents, they’re the ones that are unselfish givers, to allow these children to go to this school.”
The St. Patrick School kindergarten class of 2013 consists of Elijah Arnaut, Audrey Bray, Veronica Bray, Anastiya Costello, Christian Czopor, Gabriel Hamrock, Marcus Hodges, Nathan Kachulis, Raania Khan, Kara Leonard, Madelyn Pickard, Makenzie Pickard, Landon Scarmack, Maya Taylor and Joseph Yesh.