Caps Off to Blind Brook Class of 2010

Outside of the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, a group of male Blind Brook graduates in blue robes rallied for the graduation ceremony like it was a football game, forming a huddle with their arms wrapped around each other.

"It's been a great senior year," one said. "On three!"

"One, two, three!" the group yelled, throwing their hands in the air.

When asked exactly what they were cheering for, the boys grinned and explained it was an "inside joke."

Inside jokes, traditions and memories gave a unique charm to the Blind Brook graduation ceremony Thursday night. Graduates arrived in sparkling mortarboards decorated with photos of friends and teammates; the reception area was decked out with seniors' posters and projects; and in the auditorium, before the ceremony, a slide show displayed pictures of the class slathered in blue paint, dressed in penguin costumes and piled into a jeep spray-painted with "class of 2010."

There were also pictures of the graduates as children, because most Blind Brook students have gone to school together since kindergarten.

As the Blind Brook band struck up "Pomp and Circumstance," the graduates streamed into the large auditorium—the boys, in blue robes, from the right entrance, the girls, in white robes, from the left. Each male graduate ascended the steps at the same time as a female graduate did, and each pair met center stage to share a special moment before heading to their seats.

The class of 2010, made up of only 89 students, displayed their long-time closeness and affection in the opening speeches. Introducing the first class speaker, Justin Starr, Daniel Newmark revealed to the audience Starr's "secret passion for jousting" and noted that Starr "has always been a great organizer, since he was starting games of manhunt in elementary school." 

Starr, who will attend the University of Pennsylvania, began his speech by illuminating the audience about exotic traditions around the world, such as Oaxaca, Mexico Radish Festival, the Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea and the annual rolling of a large wheel of cheese down Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire.

"You may be asking, 'what does this have to do with Blind Brook High School?'" Starr said. "Or, possibly, 'why do people waste perfectly good cheese?'"

Then Starr explained some Blind Brook traditions that may seem equally strange: the first grade Snowball, at which Ridge Street School first-graders ballroom dance to holiday music; a scavenger hunt that ends up with students feeding the principal grapes; and painting the campus boulder school colors.

"Members of Blind Brook High School are united by adherence to unique traditions," Starr added.

Unique traditions serve not only to bond, but also to educate the students, Starr continued. He recalled his kindergarten class stacking one hundred pancakes on top of each other to learn to count, his seventh-grade class getting "taxed" by a teacher to illustrate the motives behind the American Revolution and his European History class creating mock World War I trenches.

The next speaker, Jacqueline Mamorsky—who will attend the Rochester Institute of Technology this fall—looked ahead to the future. Mamorsky is deaf, and told the story of her cochlear implant surgery; Mamonsky's speech was translated from sign language.

Following Mamorsky was guest speaker Geralyn Lucas, author of Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy. Lucas's memoir recounts her breast cancer diagnosis, which came when she was only 27 years old, newly married and settling into a dream job. For Lucas, red lipstick was not a cosmetic choice, but a symbol of boldness and courage. Indeed, she exhorted the graduates to develop these personal characteristics rather than focus on appearances, disparaging modern "role models" like plastic surgery queen Heidi Montag of MTV's The Hills.

"Don't change your face or your cup size," Lucas said. "Change the world. Don't go to The Hills. Go to Capitol Hill. Don't be Heidi. Be Hillary."

The class of 2010 donated $1,000 to breast cancer research in recognition of Lucas.

Next, superintendent William Stark addressed the gap between the two main messages of the graduation: the fond memories of the past and the challenges of the future. In exit interviews, Stark explained, some Blind Brook seniors expressed concern that they had never really learned to deal with failure—because, with the caring community of Blind Brook friends and faculty around them, they never felt like they failed.

Following Stark's words was the presentation of diplomas—as the students received their certificates, applause for each student was uproarious, punctuated by cheers, whoops, calls of graduate's nicknames and shouts of "I love you!" 

"I'm so excited, I'm still shaking!" said graduate Molly Weisblum just after the graduate's recession. Weisblum will attend SUNY Cortland this fall.

"I wasn't expecting to be sad," said another graduate, Amanda Silver. "But it's bittersweet."

Silver, who will attend University of Rhode Island, said she would always remember her friends at Blind Brook, such as the good friend she embraced on stage during the procession and will take with her the lessons from her teacher Mr. Markolovic.

"Take risks" is the lesson that Claudia Treacy will take from her classmate's speeches and use in her new life as a Boston College student this fall. Treacy will also be sure to keep in touch with Blind Brook friends through "Facebook, cell phones, video chats and visits."

"I'm so proud of them," says Geraldine Treacy, mother of Claudia and her twin sister Danielle, who will also attend Boston College. Seeing both daughters receive their diplomas was "double everything," she said.