Cedarcrest celebrates graduation of 222

Published 8:30 am Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Cedarcrest High School sent off the Class of 2016 Friday night, diplomas in hand, cheers, applause and bad jokes still ringing in their ears.

The cheers and applause were well-deserved, of course, as the class of 222 students heard from valedictorians Esmerelda Farias, Piper Cramer and Ryssa Parks, and salutatorian Sydney Seese. Staff speaker Zack Pittis was responsible for the bad jokes.

“What’s red and bad for your teeth?” he asked, in a continuation of his traditional Bad Joke Fridays.

“It’s a brick,” he answered.

It was a terrible joke, Pittis admitted, but it had two things going for it; it was simple, and effective, which were the two qualities he wished upon the graduating class.

“I’m asking you to be simple — easy to understand, and easy to deal with — thoughtful, intelligent and kind,” he said.

Farias and Cramer created a timeline of the movies that were popular at their various milestones, including middle school for their speech. “Don’t pretend, you had a Bieber phase,” Cramer told her classmates.

Parks and Seese talked about true accomplishment, which Seese said was “being yourself in a world that’s trying to change you.”

Before the night was through, the seniors also gave three musical performances, one with the combined choir, and two by separate bands. Renee Wolf, Lane Pitts and Nicholas Theriault played “Landslide,” and Sophie Maddox, Pitts, Seese, Elizabeth Denver and Joseph Hollingsworth played “Verge.”

For more Cedarcrest photos, visit https://flic.kr/s/aHskCdM58j.