2016 graduation caps eventful year at Chinook

Chinook High School held its 2016 graduation ceremony Sunday afternoon, capping a school year of triumph and tragedy.

As the ceremony neared, Derek Bell stood in the hallway in his black cap and gown and a pair of sandals on his feet.

Bell, who has received a football scholarship to Montana State University-Northern, said he had mixed feelings about the day.    

"It's like one of those things, you are excited to do it, but it's going to be sad once you are done and gone from high school," he said.

Bell added that the experience felt surreal, much like when the Beeters won the 2015 Class C 8-Man state championship over Arleen in November.

It was the second time the team clinched the championship in five years.

But it was an academic year when the school and broader community experienced a devastating loss, that of Jesse Dannels, a senior and wrestling star who died in a car crash last February east of Chinook. The tragedy rocked the small city, making headlines and producing heartache for those whose lives he touched.

During the graduation ceremony in the school's gymnasium, a chair sat draped in a black gown and cap as a memorial to Dannels, who would have been among the graduates.

Dannel's three brothers: Kyle Reid, Casey Reid and Ryan Reid were summoned up to the platform to receive Dannel's diploma.

This year's graduating class consisted of 26 students.

Matt Molyneaux, who has been principal at Chinook High for 13 years, said the size is on par with other years.

However, former state Sen. Greg Jergeson, D-Chinook, himself an alumnus of Chinook High and who was at Sunday's ceremony, said the number of students graduating each year has fallen considerably.

Jergeson said he graduated with 68 other students from the school in 1969, more than double the size of the 2016 class.

He attributes the shrinking number to the growth of large scale farms at the expense of smaller ones and families having fewer children.

Families of graduates filed into the Flloyd Bowen gymnasium about a half hour before the the first notes of 'Pomp and Circumstance' were played.

A group of school administrators and staff made their way onto a dais in the middle of the arena. The procession of students soon followed with males wearing black gowns and females white.

Elizabeth Hodgson, one of the class's two valedictorians, compared what lay ahead to the nervous anticipation and excitement of skiing down a slope.

"It is us, you and I, who have the challenge ahead of us to ski down that mountain of life," she said.

Hodgson urged her fellow graduates to " brace themselves for the ride."

The classes co-valedictorian Blake Downs, gave his valedictory speech not from the podium but with a PowerPoint presentation, featuring video clips, images and narration in his own voice.

Rick Lindquist, a math teacher who is leaving Chinook High after 21 years, encouraged graduates to "follow your hearts" and that when they follow the dictums of their hearts "a job becomes much more than a job, it becomes a calling."

A PowerPoint presentation then followed showcasing photos of each graduating student from the early years of their childhood to the present day.

When the lights came back on and the videos and PowerPoints had ceased, Molyneaux signaled it was time to hand out the diplomas.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time," he said.

One by one, their names were called out followed by their future plans and the scholarships they had been awarded.

Molyneaux said scholarships awarded to the class of 2016 totaled $200,450.