WOONSOCKET — The long line of graduates in red and blue gowns and caps made the traditional walk down Logee Street hill from Mount St. Charles Academy on a sun kissed Sunday afternoon on June 8 providing a visual worthy of a coffee table book about high school commencements.
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The sky was robin egg blue with small puffy white clouds overhead and a gentle breeze flapped the graduate’s robes as they marched toward the hockey rink that made the school famous, Brother Adelard Arena. Small gatherings of relatives caught the scene with their graduate at the center with dozens of camera clicks.
“It is an amazing feeling today,” said graduate Marissa Lahousse, who will attend Roanoke College in Virginia, afterward. “There is a feeling of community, which is what Mount made us, making us feel this is our home. The Mount is always a part of you.”
The 90th commencement at the school run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, where ice hockey has reigned since Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States in 1926, was fittingly held, as it always is, in the hockey arena, a blessed air conditioned converted airplane hangar that has grown to the size of small indoor stadium over the years.
History and tradition are important at the school, and as a consequence, 50th anniversary classes are invited to precede the march of graduates into the arena, making Marissa Lahousse’s point, “The Mount is always a part of you.”
That is what drew Erin Fregeau Molinari of North Smithfield, a third generation Mountie, and her infant daughter, Isabella, a likely future fourth generation Mountie years from now. Her cousin, Drew DePiero, was among the graduates. He will attend Community College of Rhode Island this fall.
“He is just a strong, compassionate and caring young man and it is exciting to see him graduate today,” Molinari, a parishioner of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Woonsocket, said as she walked at the back of the arena, carrying Isabella. “Hopefully, I can send her here someday. It is our family tradition. My grandfather is an alum, and my father is, and I am, Class of 1997.”
Despite air conditioning cool enough for an ice hockey rink, many of the hundreds seated behind the chain link fencing that surrounds the rink area and on the floor waved commencement programs to fan themselves as the heat from the sunny afternoon warmed the arena.
Roland and Sandy Desmarais, of St. John Vianney Church, Cumberland, attended the commencement exercises to cheer on their niece and godchild, Ashley Marie Fortier.
“We are excited for her. She did well and has a very good future,” Sandy said of Fortier, who will attend Wheelock College in Boston this fall.
The boys were royal blue caps and gowns and the girls wore red caps and gowns, appropriate for the day, Pentecost Sunday. The Mount St. Charles Senior Band, under the direction of Marc Blanchette, with some musicians in their commencement garb performed a prelude and then “Pomp and Circumstance” as the 182 seniors walked two-by-two into the arena. Parents leaned over chairs, squeezed into side aisles and contorted themselves to photograph their graduate. The stands were speckled with balloons aloft and bouquets of flowers were cradled in arms that once held these same graduates as infants.
Tradition and pride reigns at high school graduations and The Mount is steeped in both. Members of the Class of 1964 were called by name to receive a diploma that commemorates the 50th anniversary of their class. Then, Class Salutatorian Kristen Rodrigues delivered her address.
“As we walked here from the upper lot today as a class, we heard the bells ring for the last time as students at Mount Saint Charles Academy. Whether each of us has been here for two, three, four, five, or even six years, we have represented what it means to be a Mountie,” she said. “We as Mounties have led the school, and we as Mounties will continue to lead after we receive our diplomas here today. Fifty years ago, the class of 1964 received their diplomas. And in fifty years, we will return to do the same.”
She said later in her address, “Even though the bells signify the end of our time here as seniors, it is not the end. Although we may no longer be able to use – and perhaps overuse – “hashtag seniors,” we have been and always will be a part of Mount. As Mrs. Smith put so eloquently, “Once you’re a Mountie, you’re always a Mountie.” And why is that? It’s because this pithy statement summarizes the idea that being a Mountie is not about simply paying tuition or wearing the Mount uniform. It is about being a leader in order to become “people of faith who use their talents and intellects to serve others.”
After the awarding of diplomas and the following tidal wave of cheers and applause for the graduates, Class Valedictorian Jennifer Flaherty addressed the class.
“Now, as we peer into our futures we may only see the broad outline of things – our major, our careers. These inevitable decisions will assuredly define our lives in no small way, but I challenge you to carry what you have done here at Mount to college as well. For, as here at Mount, our happiness after Mount will depend not so much on what we accomplish or who we become, but by how we choose to react to the banalities of our everyday lives. For I am confident that instead of remembering Mrs. Beaudry’s geometry theorems, you will instead find yourself reminiscing about the way we watched the sunrise as we went to Mr. O’Neill’s morning sessions. Or the way the band sounded as we played the 1812 Overture as fireworks erupted over our heads. Or the faint sprinkle of rain on some of our last days as seniors, or the oppressive heat that made our finals in freshman year especially arduous. Millions of small moments like these will imprint themselves on our memories, creating the unique texture of our experiences at Mount,” Flaherty said.
After the last notes of the band’s rendition of the Recessional faded, the graduates walked into a mob of family and friends waiting outside the arena.
Karlee Brooke Ogilvie, of Cumberland, looked up and saw sign held aloft by her aunt, Rebecca Morin that read in bright red Magic Marker, “You’ve come a long way...Go Karlee...Love you...We are so proud.” Several photographs of a younger Karlee decorated the sign. Her grandmother, another aunt and her brother Colby were huddled together waiting for her and Karlee made a beeline to them.
“I was looking up and I saw the sign and that is how I found them,” said Karlee, who will attend Johnson and Wales University in the fall. “I am so happy today.”
Megan Corbeil of North Smithfield, embraced her parents, Eric and Geraldine, and then her favorite teacher, Donald Hogue, who teaches English. Megan will major in English at Assumption College.
“We feel very proud and a little sad; they grow up too fast,” Geraldine said.
