LEWISTON — Students, friends and families came together in the steamy Androscoggin Bank Colisee for the 114th commencement of Leavitt Area High School on Sunday afternoon.

Leavitt Principal Eben Shaw told the crowd that it was almost 20 years to the day since his own graduation from Leavitt, in which more than 1,000 people were crammed into the small Leavitt gym, “possibly against every fire code” and also in “oppressive heat.” 

Shaw said that while he recognized speeches at such momentous occasions are often forgotten, he hoped that students would carry away something of his speech.

To achieve that goal, he turned to “Horton Hears a Who” by award-winning author Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), for the themes of his speech.

Shaw admonished the graduates not to lose their uniqueness or loyalty and to never give in or settle, following the example of Horton: “I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.”

Shaw commended the character of the graduates and and asked them to carry forth in Horton’s words, “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” toward one another.

Senior Class President Sydney Nadeau said that although she had always wanted to be a teacher, she would be majoring in forensic psychology, thanks to inspiration provided by her advanced-placement psychology teacher.

Graduating third in her class and the recipient of the Good Citizenship Award as well as the state Principal’s Award, Nadeau said she’s seen a lot of growth in her class while serving as its president the last two years.

“We’re the smallest class to come through here in a while,” Nadeau said, referring to the 100 graduates, “It’s good to see us all pull together at the right time.”

Nadeau encouraged her classmates to step up and embrace their new independence, “From here on out, nothing stands between you and your aspirations but yourself.”

There are no more excuses for not achieving, Nadeau said. “Depend on no one other than the one who looks back at you in the mirror.”

Parent Nancy Simpson made her way through the crowd with a large bunch of balloons, beaming as she talked about her son, Jarvis Simpson, “It’s great, but I can’t believe he’s graduating.”

Simpson said her son plans to join the Navy Reserves this summer and attend Maine Maritime Academy in the fall.

His recruiter, Aviation Botswain’s Mate 1st Class Jeffrey Bennett was in attendance.

“I show up to graduations and support them,” Bennett said, “I really don’t recruit when I come to graduations.” Bennett said he had two recruits among the graduates.

Graduation will conclude Sunday with an overnight Project Graduation celebration at Sunday River.

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