{"id":12882,"date":"2014-06-19T14:49:17","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T14:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/independentweekender.com\/?p=12882"},"modified":"2014-07-02T18:04:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T18:04:15","slug":"elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Elk Lake grads told to ‘find their why’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senior<\/a>

Senior class president Rachel Manzek, left, and valedictorian Paige Parkhurts lead the graduating class at Elk Lake out of the gym Saturday morning. STAFF PHOTO\/JEFFREY HORVATH<\/p><\/div>\n

BY JEFFREY HORVATH
\nTimes Shamrock Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elk Lake High School Dean of Students Marc Weisgold challenged the Class of 2014 to “find their why” during commencement exercises Saturday morning.
\nAfter taking a \u201cselfie\u201d with the seniors, he noted, “Success is the product of assigning great value to small tasks and working hard on a daily basis to accomplish these tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018why\u2019 in life,\u201d he continued, \u201cis the source of this value. It is what motivates us to be better people each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weisgold interrupted his own speech briefly to hand a crayon to every member of the graduating class. \u201cEvery crayon is different,\u201d said Weisgold, \u201cbut they are all just as potent, and they all come from the same box called Elk Lake High School.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Go develop your dreams daily,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Valedictorian Paige Parkhurst identified her memories and experiences of Elk Lake as part of her \u201cfoundation\u201d and challenged all of her classmates and friends to \u201ctake this strong foundation we have and build upon it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Salutatorian Matt Woolcock also spoke of school as providing the basis for future success, claiming he was confident “that we are bound for great things” even though \u201cLife is quite simply what you make of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Class President Rachel Manzek reminded the 89 graduates of the Class of 2014 of their shared experiences, and to latch onto memories “Because we can\u2019t get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A group of Elk Lake seniors engage in a little silliness after receipt of their diplomas Saturday. STAFF PHOTO\/JEFFREY HORVATH<\/p><\/div>\n

She noted the importance of the lessons that memories can teach. \u201cWe have learned who we are and what our passions are,\u201d Manzek said. \u201cHigh School has taught us to live and learn and that being true to yourself is always best.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also took the time to remember one of her classmates who could be with the class only in spirit. In 2009 Elk Lake lost Michael Zajaczkowski, who would have graduated on Saturday. \u201cWe may not have gotten to grow up entirely with Mike,\u201d said Manzek, \u201cbut his memory is a treasure to our class and his gentle heart is missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the more emotional moments of the ceremony came as graduate Galen Kithcart waited on stage to receive his diploma. The diplomas are usually distributed by the members of Elk Lake\u2019s trustees, but, on Saturday, there was a slight change of plans. To his surprise, Galen\u2019s diploma was presented to him by his sister, Pfc. Valerie Kithcart, who made the trip from Fort Sill, Oklahoma to see her brother graduate. Seeing the two embrace on stage served as a reminder to the audience that family, too, contributes to the sturdy foundation that the graduates will build their futures upon.<\/p>\n

Of the graduates, high school principal Brian Mallery noted that 43 will be attending a four year college or university, seven will be attending a technical college or trade school, 29 will be entering the work force, and three will be joining the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JEFFREY HORVATH Times Shamrock Writer Elk Lake High School Dean of Students Marc Weisgold challenged the Class of 2014 to “find their why” during…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nElk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY JEFFREY HORVATH Times Shamrock Writer Elk Lake High School Dean of Students Marc Weisgold challenged the Class of 2014 to “find their why” during...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-19T14:49:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-02T18:04:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway-1024x661.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"661\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/\",\"name\":\"Elk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-19T14:49:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-02T18:04:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg\",\"width\":2813,\"height\":1817,\"caption\":\"Senior class president Rachel Manzek, left, and valedictorian Paige Parkhurts lead the graduating class at Elk Lake out of the gym Saturday morning. STAFF PHOTO\/JEFFREY HORVATH\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Elk Lake grads told to ‘find their why’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/\",\"name\":\"PS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5\",\"name\":\"tpennysaver\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6045c51d67078fca07dea2f9a98096ff872042fa26efc301b1a93de9e6020ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6045c51d67078fca07dea2f9a98096ff872042fa26efc301b1a93de9e6020ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tpennysaver\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/author\/tpennysaver\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Elk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Elk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS","og_description":"BY JEFFREY HORVATH Times Shamrock Writer Elk Lake High School Dean of Students Marc Weisgold challenged the Class of 2014 to “find their why” during...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/","og_site_name":"PS","article_published_time":"2014-06-19T14:49:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-02T18:04:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":661,"url":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway-1024x661.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"tpennysaver","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tpennysaver","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/","name":"Elk Lake grads told to 'find their why' - PS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-19T14:49:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-02T18:04:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/WGSI_EL_grad_glanceaway.jpg","width":2813,"height":1817,"caption":"Senior class president Rachel Manzek, left, and valedictorian Paige Parkhurts lead the graduating class at Elk Lake out of the gym Saturday morning. STAFF PHOTO\/JEFFREY HORVATH"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2014\/06\/19\/elk-lake-grads-told-to-find-their-why\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Elk Lake grads told to ‘find their why’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/","name":"PS","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5","name":"tpennysaver","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6045c51d67078fca07dea2f9a98096ff872042fa26efc301b1a93de9e6020ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6045c51d67078fca07dea2f9a98096ff872042fa26efc301b1a93de9e6020ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tpennysaver"},"url":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/author\/tpennysaver\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}