ORFORD — Maia Perry and Allison Collins were finishing fourth grade and starting fifth in 2011, the year that The Head and the Heart released Rivers & Roads.
A golden oldie? Maybe, but the senior honor students liked the folk-pop group’s lament enough to sing it on Saturday afternoon, just before collecting their diplomas along with the other 35 members of Rivendell Academy’s Class of 2019.
“A year from now we’ll all be gone,” the Fordham University freshman-to-be Perry sang from the first verse, while the class salutatorian Collins strummed her guitar.
All our friends will move away
And they’re going to better places
But our friends will be gone away
One already had left the premises: Valedictorian and star athlete Jonathan Haehnel, whom everybody calls Max, wrapped up his academic requirements in November, which helped him jump out to a head start — at the end of mud season — on his mission to Central America for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
On Memorial Day, from the Guatemalan city of Huehuetenango near the border with Mexico, Haehnel emailed to his parents in Fairlee a short valedictory speech for his brother, Rivendell sophomore Caleb Haehnel, to read to the graduates and to a Rivendell gymnasium overflowing with friends and family on Saturday.
“My only advice, sent from a few thousand miles away … is to focus on what matters most in your lives,” Caleb read from his brother’s message. “Concentrate your time and energy on the activities which will help you to become the man or woman you aspire to be.
“Thank you for remembering me on this day and inviting me to speak. I am excited, in the coming years, to see you become the powerful, inspiring men and women whom the world needs.”
The Class of 2019 is well along that path, in the eyes — and the heads and the hearts — of the Rivendell faculty and administration.
Principal Keri Gelenian cited senior honor student Kenneth Beaupre’s many achievements at River Bend Career and Technology Center, just up the Connecticut River in Bradford, Vt., in preparation for attending White Mountains Community College.
“You’re going to be a great naturalist someday,” Gelenian said.
In her commencement-closing remarks, veteran social-studies teacher Kirsten Surprenant was grateful to this class for, well, its gratitude.
“You have all thanked us at the end of every class every day,” said Surprenant, whose son Samuel graduated with honors. “Hearing that from students at the end of class really means a lot to us.”
World language teacher and class adviser Paige Radney praised the students, most of whom were freshmen the year she came to Rivendell, for their sense of humor and their generosity.
“You have made it so easy for me to love my job,” she said.
Gelenian added that he could scarcely think of a moment in which this year’s seniors did anything to make his job harder — not even the usually obligatory class prank.
“The temperament of your class sets you apart,” Gelenian said. “You were polite, respectful and always courteous.”
Now Gelenian hopes they continue to extend their mentors that courtesy, however far afield life takes them.
“Try to send one of us a tidbit of good news each week,” the principal said. “Not just something on SnapChat or Instagram or Facebook. An email is fine. It’s got to be personal and direct to the person.”
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.