COAL TOWNSHIP — Our Lady of Lourdes Regional High School graduation was held in the high school gymnasium Wednesday night.
Valedictorian Leonard Machesic spoke about his journey and how he had made a home for himself at Lourdes with his classmates.
He moved schools as a child, but his regrets and worries melted away when he arrived at Lourdes.
“When people say the Lord is family, they are not kidding. Whether it was having fun with friends or being in class with Mr. Bickel.”
“You have prepared me for the world I face today,” he said. “The lessons and skills I learned will be useful for years to come.”
“Class of 2023, our time together is coming to an end, and I can hardly believe it was fourteen years ago when my mom first sent me off to school with tears in her eyes and I looked back and said to her, 'Ok, bye Mom!' I can imagine many of the moms here including my mom will soon have tears in their eyes when they send them off to college.”
Salutatorian Chloe Cartwright discussed how her fellow classmates have grown stronger through their experiences over the years.
“I arrived here in the fall of 2020, my sophomore year,” Cartwright said. “The connections I began to form kept me here now in 2023. I alongside twenty students who stand before you today. We have studied, changed, and grown into different people over the last few years. No matter the circumstances, we preserved and have become stronger because of the things we went through.”
Kimberly A. Kopko, Class of 1982, delivered the commencement address to the 21 graduates, talking to them about the basics of life.