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SINCLAIRVILLE — For the Cassadaga Valley Class of 2009 the next step is now here. On Friday, the 95 members of the senior class, along with parents and friends, celebrated their advancement from high school during the 70th commencement of the Cassadaga Valley Central School System in the J. Arthur France Auditorium. Principal Jud Foy opened up the ceremonies and he stated that the Class of 2009 was among the “top classes” that he has had the privilege of presiding over in his 22 years as an educator. Salutatorian, Lauren Moss, compared life to quilt-making. “Life is going to give me scraps,” Moss said. “And I’ll just have to deal with it. ‘When life gives you scraps make quilts’ is a proverb that I hope to live by for the rest of my life. Cassadaga Valley has given me the scraps to make a living, now I have to continue on and make a beautiful quilt.” Moss advised her fellow students to do the same and said that tough times can make you see what is really important in life. “Without a difficult life there would be no challenge and without a challenge, there would be nothing to live for,” Moss said. “Live for the challenge and have fun, wherever life takes you from here on in. If you do not, you are missing out, because in order to be happy you have to push on in difficult times and enjoy the smaller things in life.” Finally, she thanked her favorite teacher Mrs. Odorisio for showing her that you can be a “cool nerd.” Jim Woltz gave the commencement address. Woltz is a graduate from the Cassadaga Valley class of 1984. He also attended Jamestown Community College and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Once Woltz finished college, he worked at Truck-Lite and helped to develop the first L.E.D. headlight, among other things. Woltz also started a kitchen design company in 2007 known as Urban Design. It has been 25 years since Woltz left CVCS and his goal was to boil down all those years of experience into a speech that the students could take with them. He did so by making a top 10 list a’la David Letterman. Among Woltz’s top ten were: Number ten, Dream Big. “Don’t look when you are old and wonder, what if,” Woltz said. Number nine was a quote from Jim Rohn that states ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ “Successful people hang out with successful people,” Woltz said. “Pick people with similar dreams and aspirations.” Insanity and how to avoid it was number eight. Woltz advised, “If you are not where you want to be in life, continuing to do what you are currently doing isn’t’ going to get you there. You need to make a change.” The world wants you to be yourself was number three. “As someone once said, ‘Learn to like yourself or change until you can life yourself’,” Woltz said. Number two was to take 100 percent responsibility for yourself and your happiness. The final piece of advice Woltz offered was that the world rewards action. “From here on out, you can be anything and do anything you want, but it requires action on your part,” he said. Before giving the final speech of the night, Valedictorian and class president Jeffrey Bulger presented the gift to the school. The class of 2009 is leaving new flags for the sports fields and school grounds. Superintendent John Brown thanked the class for the gift and said that the flags will be great in promoting school spirit. Bulger had been at the podium several times throughout the ceremony, but in his final address to his class he urged them to measure success in ways other than the amount of money they make. “One would usually state that success was directly proportional to monetary gain; the more money you made the more successful you were,” Bulger said. “Although, this is one way to measure the success of man, I believe that it is the least significant way in which to do so. The idea of learning as much as you can, bettering yourself every chance you get, helping people when they are in need and being happy with yourself is what I consider success. ... I hope that each and every person here on stage tonight can become successful in everything they do. ... I know that each of them have the abilities, determination and courage to go after (their) dreams and see them come to fruition. And by that, I consider them to be a success in their own right.” At the end of his speech, Bulger borrowed the immortal words of Spock from Star Trek and said, “Thank you all and live long and prosper.” With that, the Class of 2009 received their coveted diplomas and began the next step of their lives.

 

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