AMENIA — A variety of paths will lead the 45 members of the graduating class of 2025 in vastly different directions. To mark the milestone, they assembled with family and friends for their Commencement ceremony at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21.
Pride in school and individual achievement was a clear theme as well as the joys of the moment. The weather was sunny and mild for the event held under a huge tent filled to capacity. The view of the far-off hills was silently symbolic.
“Our future is in really, really good hands,” said Webutuck Superintendent Raymond Castellani during welcoming remarks.
Reflecting on the words of martial arts star Bruce Lee, Castellani advised the students to “be like water,” citing the properties of flexibility and adaptation.
“Embrace change,” was Castellani’s advice to the rapt graduating class.
“My commitment is absolute,” proclaimed co-Principal Matthew Pascale who has served alongside Principal Robert Knuschke for this year, ready to assume full responsibilities as Principal in the coming school year.
Modeling her decked-out tasseled cap and celebrating her newly-awarded diploma, Alexis Winters of Amenia paused for a photo in the moments following the 71st annual Commencement at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21. Her sister, Haley, who was a member of the class of 2023, shared in marking the milestone occasion.Photo by Leila Hawken
Pascale highlighted qualities of the graduating class, including compassion, potential and intellect, urging them toward a lifetime of service.
“Service enriches the lives of others, as well as your own,” Pascale said.
Invited to present the commencement address, Aaron Howard, now completing his first year on the Webutuck teaching staff, specializing in technology, noted that he had been a member of the graduating class of 1999.
In the ensuing years, Howard has served as a volunteer firefighter and Chief of the Amenia Fire Company, and as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Members of the graduating class of 2025 received their diplomas from Superintendent Raymond Castellani at the 71st annual Commencement ceremony under a tent at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21.Photo by Leila Hawken
Howard praised the 2025 class, telling them that their school experience was out of the ordinary, due to adjustment to the pandemic.
“You are stronger and more resilient,” Howard said.
Advice included to “serve before you’re ready, treat people well, define success for yourself, and be part of something bigger than yourself.”
“Be bold, be kind,” Howard concluded.
Recognizing the significance of her graduation, salutatorian Gissel Oros spoke of the sacrifices made by her family, noting that she will be the first generation in her family to attend college.
The 71st annual Commencement at Webutuck High School on Saturday, June 21, brought family and friends together to celebrate the Class of 2025. Pausing for a photo was Troy Brazee of Millerton, flanked by proud parents Tricia and Ernest Brazee.Photo by Leila Hawken
“Never give up,” Oros told her classmates. “Keep moving forward.”
“We start a new chapter,” Oros said, eliciting loud cheers from her audience.
Next to the podium was valedictorian Olivia Wickwire whose first move was to adjust the microphone to a proper angle, indicating ease in a public speaking setting.
Wickwire shared remembrances with her classmates and particularly described the solid influence of her family, conveying a sense of profound gratitude to her grandmother who provided her with an unfailing, foundational role model.
“Be the person you want people to know you as,” Wickwire told her classmates.
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Houston has shared the stage with stars ranging from Barbra Streisand to Motown great Mary Wells. “I have had the honor of portraying Elizabeth Freeman for three years in “Meet Elizabeth Freeman” by Teresa Miller. Our first reading of “1781” is in celebration of Juneteenth, which is wonderfully symbolic and poignant.” Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery. Two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, word of their freedom finally reached slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
Tombstone of Elizabeth Freeman in the “Sedgewick Pie” family burial ground in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Lonnie carter
MumBet, born in 1742 to African enslaved parents, was purchased at age six months by Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, for whom she worked until her thirties. Ashley helped write the 1773 Sheffield Declaration which stated, “Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property.” Rumor has it that MumBet overheard a reading of the document. After a traumatic household experience, MumBet left the Ashley home in Bartholomew’s Cobble, walked four miles to Sheffield, and asked attorney and abolitionist Theodore Sedgwick to help her gain her freedom.
Houston shared, “I live in Sheffield near where she was enslaved, in a house she would have passed on her walk from Ashley Falls to Sheffield. I am humbled by the fortitude and inner strength it must have taken for this woman to defy norms and take a stand for her own freedom.We Americans must still stand and fight for our rights to live free.”
Elizabeth Freeman spent her years as a free woman working for wages in the Sedgewick household, saving money to buy her own home in Stockbridge, where she was a midwife and healer. She died in 1829 and is buried in “Sedgewick Pie,” the family burial plot in Stockbridge. One of her great-grandchildren, W.E.B. DuBois, born in Great Barrington, was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. DuBois founded the NAACP.
Her tombstone reads: “She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal. She neither wasted time nor property. She never violated a trust nor failed to perform a duty. In every situation of domestic trial, she was the most efficient helper, and the tenderest friend. Good mother, farewell.”
The performance of “1781” will take place Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main (103 Main St., Falls Village).Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted.
