Wilton-Lyndeborough’s graduation ceremony Friday was special for this year’s graduating class, who ended their middle school journey at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantined at home, and therefore missed out on a formal eighth-grade graduation ceremony.

The class’ adaptability in the face of uncertainty was foremost on speakers’ minds during the ceremony.

“I won’t say it’s always been easy – but man, was it a journey. I can’t overlook one of our greatest challenges, COVID,” said Tyler Gill, president of the Class of 2024. “I can tell you we’re one of the most-adaptable group of students you’ll ever meet. I mean, we made it through one of the world’s craziest, unknown moments and we’re sitting here before you ready to take on the world and whatever challenges it throws at us.”

Gill emphasized the class’ resilience in spite of its unusually small size; WLC is graduating only 27 seniors this year, to which Gill commented, “I’m sure we’re the smallest graduating class many of you have ever seen.” For the past four years, the WLC graduating class has had more than 30 seniors, except in 2020, when there were 29.

School Board Chair Dennis Golding echoed Gill’s comments.

“As the Class of 2024, you’ve endured quite a bit during your journey at WLC. You did, like Tyler stated, have to deal with the COVID pandemic,” he said. “You’ve been through four principals and teacher turnover like we’ve never experienced in our district. Yet through all of this you kept working, moving forward, persevering.”

Salutatorian Audra Rizzuto highlighted her love for the small but tight-knit WLC community.

“In this small town, not one of us could have reached this point alone. I truly believe that it’s our small community that makes us unique. We are pieced together by the encouragement, belief, empathy and kindness from those who have supported us – whether it’s someone who taught us to dream, explain the world’s complexities, or simply told us we could do it when it seemed impossible. We owe you our gratitude,” she said.

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Rizzuto shared some of her favorite memories from her time at WLC, including sixth-grade ecology school at Ferry Beach in Maine, where “Ty and Levi got us kicked off the playground,” or in sophomore year when she “smuggled baby bunnies into school in my backpack. Or junior year when Alex blew up Ms. Clark’s microwave with his mac and cheese.”

Valedictorian Kay Bozarth described her experience moving from a large Florida high school to WLC, a much smaller school.

“I would love to look back at all of the fun moments we had as a class this year, like the Monadnock hike and the ski trip. I think we all got to bond as we climbed that mountain and learned to ski and snowboard,” she said. “At WLC, the teachers care about you as a person because it is a small school – they have the time to give each student the attention they need, and they’ll take the time to get to know you. Coming from a big school in Florida to our little town of Wilton, these moments were something I didn’t expect to experience.”

The Class of 2024 presented class gifts to several staff members. They recognized school counseling secretary and registrar Sharon Coffey, Assistant Principal Katie Gosselin, Principal Tom Ronning, administrative assistant Linda Draper and middle school English teacher Laura Bujak.

Ronning also recognized Robert Hannigan for his plans to serve in the Navy, and family and consumer science teacher Olympia Clark for her 30 years of service to WLC.

“During this time, she’s cultivated many student relationships,” he said. “Just the other day, I had parents inquiring if their child would have Ms. Clark. Having taught them, they were hopeful that she would teach their children.”