Whitewater and Dodson honor Senior Graduates

Whitewater High School Graduation

Friends and relatives flooded into the WHS gymnasium from all over the United States to celebrate with the graduating class of six. Of the six only two were born and raised in Whitewater, Tatum Moore and Layne Engel, but some of their relatives live in North Dakota and way over on the west side of Montana. Connie Wisher moved here from South Carolina; therefore, the southern accents were plentiful in the crowd. Jessica Anderson has roots here, but transferred from Washington when she was a freshman. Alexandria Santillan hails from California and Arizona and Ethan Wiese is a Phillips County native with lots of relatives from Malta.

Layne Engel, the salutatorian, said he was excited to be the salutatorian until he realized that there was a speech involved. His class was always laughing together over a prank or joke and they got to be good friends. He thanked the community for the support that was given to him and the class. He will be custom cutting this summer and then attending MCCC for operating big equipment.

Connie Wisher, valedictorian, also thanked the community for the support and relayed a tidbit about each classmate and how thankful she was to be excepted when she moved here. Ethan established himself as the go to mechanic. Layne was the person who wanted everyone to "let it happen". Tatum was the social butterfly. Jessica, the seemingly quiet one until she had something important to say, and Alexandria, the shy and reserved student in the class. Connie ended with James 4:14.

The scholarships that were awarded were for Tatum Moore, Swede Olsen Memorial for $500. Layne Engel received the Butch Mayer Memorial, $250; WHS Salutatorian, $500; Hilda and Al Brown Memorial, $150; and the Governor's Best and Brightest, renewable for four years, $2,000. Connie Wisher received the Roger Simonson Memorial, the Big Flat Scholarship, $250; Triangle, $1,000, and WHS leadership in the amount of $600.

Nate Hammond gave the commencement address. He reminisced about when he walked the same halls that the seniors did a few years back. He told the graduates not to be embarrassed to say you came from a small school. The kids from a big school don't have any idea how much a student