71 graduate at Crestview High School

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

CONVOY — A total of 71 graduating seniors were honored Saturday during Crestview High School’s 54th annual Baccalaureate and Commencement held in the high school gymnasium.

The Rev. Chad Strabbing of St. Paul’s Reformed Church in Ohio City, whose son, Samuel, was a member of the Crestview Class of 2014, gave the baccalaureate address on Saturday. Honor student speakers included Sarah Klinger, Grace Callow and Emily Adams.

All four speakers provided good advice for the future, while the three honor students also added poignancy and humor to their reminiscences of the class’s past 13 years of school at Crestview Local Schools.

Many of the honor students’ reflections revolved around school sports accomplishments, including this year’s state boys’ basketball championship and state finals appearance of the Knight varsity baseball team.

Members of the Crestview Senior Choir and Knight Vision also sang “The Call” by Regina Spektor under the direction of Danille Hancock, while the high school band played “Pomp and Circumstance” as the seniors processed into the gym, then later accompanied the singing of the school “Alma Mater” and finally played a recessional as the graduates left the gym following the ceremony.

Graduates then received their diplomas from Crestview Local Board of Education members John Auld, Mike Schlagbaum, Lori Bittner, Lonnie Nedderman and Wes Skelton, with congratulatory remarks provided afterwards by Auld, who is the current board president.

High school Principal Mike Biro also provided remarks and announced the outstanding senior awards, presented this year to Grace Callow and Damian Helm.

Members of the Class of 2014 then flipped the tassels on their mortarboards and then threw them into the honor to celebrate their graduation.

The Black Inc. Outstanding Senior of Van Wert County award was then presented to Adams by Bill Purmort, president and chairman of the Board at Central Insurance Companies. The award is $2,000 plus a Black Inc. medallion.

This year marks the 69th anniversary of the Black, Inc. awards. Black Inc. was founded in 1945 by L.G. Purmort, then Central president, to help young people stay out of the “red ink”. After he passed away, Purmort left funds in a trust to continue these awards.  The trust is administered by the Van Wert County Foundation.