A final Warrior gathering… Happy Valley Class of 2020 bids farewell
Published 3:58 pm Friday, June 5, 2020
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
With skies opening earlier in the day, there was some concern that the final graduation to take place in the county might be met with dampened spirits.
However, light drops of rain faded away about an hour before the ceremony for Happy Valley High School took place giving way to a beautiful, cool evening as members of the Class of 2020 were presented with their diplomas – the final step to this point in their 13 years of education.
Led to the State Line Drive-In by the West Carter County Volunteer Fire Department tanker, the Warrior Class of 2020 took time to snap a few photos of the theater’s marquee before entering and being parked by faculty and staff from the high school.
Several friends and family had already parked and with everyone settled, it was just a short wait before Principal Doug Mitchell took to the podium to make welcoming remarks to those who had gathered.
The Top 10 Percent of the graduating class was recognized which Mitchell noted was made up of almost 90 percent girls with Mitchell commenting that the boys had their work cut out going forward.
Speeches were presented by each of the Class of 2020 Valedictorians before Mitchell gave his final address to the students graduating.
In his comments, Mitchell said, “The only regret that I have personally is not being able to have spent the past three years with you before you reached this point,” in reference to taking over the reins from former principal Bernie Young who retired at the end of last school year.
Mitchell challenged the students that there would be some tough events in their life but what would be a defining point would not be the event but how the students would respond to that event that would determine if they would be successful in life.
He further stated that from what time he had been with the students, he had no doubt that this class of graduates would be successful in life.
The time then came for the presentation of diplomas and as each student entered and exited the stage, there were bright smiles and big sighs of relief that they had finally accomplished what they had set out to do and that was to become a graduate of the Happy Valley High School Class of 2020 as their family honked car horns and gave one last Warrior whoop to their graduate.
All photos by Ivan Sanders.
