Sadness among celebration

By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News Editor

Saturday’s Cascade Locks High School commencement event was a milestone with a sense of history that did not overshadow its graduates’ awareness of the future.

For the seven Class of 2009 graduates it was more about fulfillment than finality, opportunity more than nostalgia.

“Although we are the last graduating class, we must look past that,” valedictorian Lydia Driver told her classmates and the gymnasium full of friends, family and supporters.

“This is a time to celebrate. We did it,” Driver said. “There was some late-night studying and some drama and some of us just made it to the finish, but we made it. We finally rode it to the checkpoint.”

Due to declining enrollment, the Hood River County School District board decided this spring to make Cascade Locks a K-8 school, and bus high school students to Hood River Valley High School. That the Class of 2009 will likely be the last to graduate from CLHS was mentioned just twice during the ceremony. Presenting diplomas were District Superintendent Pat Evenson-Brady and board chairman Mark Johnson.

Salutatorian Ashley Anne Muilenberg observed that the class of 2009 went from being known as “the class that fought,” while in grade school — “We didn’t have the best reputation with the teachers” — developed into a close-knit group in which each member had his or her own strengths and respect was mutual.

“Keep doing what you’re doing and you will all be successful in the road ahead. Being independent it is easy to succeed,” said Muilenberg.

“Life’s hard; write hard,” she told her classmates.

While honoring the 2009 scholars, the school put the spotlight on “the 49ers,” the six members of the school’s first graduating class from 60 years ago.

The “49ers” present were Bonnie Anderson, Donald Burnett and Wilbur Easley; Pat Belmer was attending her grandson’s commencement. Russ Woodward died in 2003 and Gary Blegen died in April.

Jean McLean, accepting on behalf of Blegen, said, “This used to be the ‘new school,’ as opposed to the ‘old school.’ For all of us, it still is the new school.

“It looks like this will be the last Cascade Locks High School class. We hope not,” she said. “They say enrollment has gotten pretty small. The graduating classes have fluctuated over the years from six to 26 a few years ago. That was something.”

Principal Ed Drew presented honorary diplomas to the 49ers and awarded Alumni Association president Steve Irving with the volunteer of the year award.

“The alumni association for this school is amazing,” something exemplified by the strong support of the 49ers, Drew noted.

The seven members of the class of 2009 constitute one of the smallest in the school’s history. Its members are Lydia Driver, Lety Herrera, Ashley Lynn Muilenberg, Adam Rush, Montgumry Sampson, Ashlea Simons and Lydia Stratton. Drew also recognized Pornsiri Ngampornsukwadi (“Ploy”), an exchange student from Thailand who spent the year in Cascade Locks and grew to be an involved and beloved part of the community.

“You are tied to my heart,” social studies teacher Judy Miller told the group. Miller was one of three teachers chosen to address the commencement, along with Macie Kingsley and Josh Hobson.

Miller reminded the graduates that “Success is not measured by what you have but what you do with what you have.

“Will you be the person others seek out and want to be around? Will you be the person that other people go to for advice; the person people trust? Will you make the world a better place in some small way? You have to respect the person you live with, and the person you live with is yourself.

“I dare just one person to tell you, “You can’t,’” Miller said

“People got to see you grow up,” Hopson said, encouraging the graduates to remember the overlapping circles in their lives: the school circle, the community circle and their family.

“It was in this Cascade Locks community you first learned to ride a bike; to walk down the main drag on your own; where you got your first kiss, hopefully.

“This is a very special place and a very special community,” he said.

But it is family that is “your rock and your bond,” he said. “Those are the people who will always be there for you. No matter the conflicts and challenges that will happen to you, that group is there for you.

“You guys are extremely lucky. You don’t just have this group. You get two families — one is your 2009 family,” Hopson said. “And they do act like a family. They bicker like a family. They hold little grudges like a family, but they also have that bond like families.

“As they go down the roads that their lives will take them, I have the utmost confidence they’re going to succeed because of where they came from,” Hopson said.

Students asked language arts teacher Macie Kingsley to write them a poem, which started with a quote from poet Galway Kinnell.

“Everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing.”

You are what can never be taken/in this moment/and every moment/endless strings of light/unfold before you.”

(For the full text of the poem turn to page A4).

The teachers credited the students with having developed unity, maturity and a sense of purpose in their lives. Their goals include medicine, design, architecture, working with animals and protecting the environment.

Driver exhorted her classmates to be flexible in their goals.

“We all have plans and dreams for what we want to accomplish. I have no doubt we will all do well. We have to jump in and don’t give up because you have doubts. If we fail it just give us a chance to pick ourselves up.

“Our current plans seem to resound with the sound of success, but don’t ever be afraid to change directions,” Driver said. “Take care on the path you choose, but remember the words of J.R.R. Tolkien: ‘Not all who wander are lost.’ Don’t be afraid to take a chance. Instead of saying, ‘Look, Ma, no hands,’ I hope you’ll take life by the horns and never let go.”

49ers Remembered

Though the high school is closing, the banners of the old gym will stay, just as the Cascade Locks Alumni Association will continue to raise funds and provide scholarships for high school students from Cascade Locks, noted Jean McLean. She gave a brief tribute to the first graduates, the Class of 1949, and to one man in particular.

“Of the six who graduated in 1949 at least three went on to higher education, and for those who did not it wasn’t because they weren’t very smart or didn’t get decent grades.

“One guy I was in awe of for his mechanical ability,” she said of Gary Blegen, who died in April 2009. Blegen was co-founder of the Cascade Locks Alumni Association.

“His support was great. He was silent about it but he was constant,” McLean said. “He never yelled out advice but yet he did have a voice. You would hear that air horn. He was absolutely immersed in the games, and totally behind the kids.” She spoke of the several air horns he went through over the years, and pointed to the banner with Bledger’s name, hanging near Woodward’s, at center court.

“Hopefully we’ll play basketball here again,” McLean said.