Fifty-eight Wildcats graduate from CHS

Custer Armory was filled with family, friends and community members cheering on the 2012 Custer High School graduating class. Fifty-eight students graduated on Saturday, May 19, marking the beginning of a new life.

The ceremony started with the high school band playing the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” while graduates marched down the aisle. Katie Martinez, student body president, welcomed everyone who attended and served at the master of ceremonies along with high school principal Dr. Paul Anderson.

Other student speakers were Desiree Bland, senior class president, Cody Schlechter and Karley Konkol. 

Schlechter took an opportunity during his speech to mention all of the teachers who influenced his life.

“I’ve had bad teachers, good teachers, funny teachers and serious teachers,” he said. “But they’ve all left an impression on me and have made me who I am today.”

Keeping with the class theme,  “Life’s a Garden, Dig It,” Konkol encouraged fellow graduates to keep digging in their garden.

“Today we are standing on the brink of our futures that is the rest of our lives. Some of us will wonder where our lives are going to turn out, but it is OK to worry. I also think it is important to realize that our future is not something that happens; it is something we have to create,” she said. 

Konkol also compared life to a garden. “We are responsible for it: we decide what grows in it, we decide what it looks like and we need to partake in it to make it work,” she said. “We need to keep weeds out, plant seeds and nurture them until they grow. But be careful, because left unattended, weeds can grow. The weeds do not define the garden; if you don’t like it, change it. It’s your garden.”

The graduating choir students performed “For Good” from the musical “Wicked” and Allison Hosman presented a photo slideshow of past memories.

After the slideshow, board of education members Anne Sandvig and Walker Witt and Supt. Scott Lepke handed out the diplomas to excited students.

“Congratulations, Class of 2012,” Anderson said. “You’ve made it.”