On June 5th the St. Anselm Catholic Academy (SACA) 8th Grade graduates began the celebrations with a fabulous “Masquerade Ball.” Graduates, parents, SACA faculty and staff, and our Parish Priests entered a transformed Meletia Hall that was decorated to the nines with large colorful masks, beautiful table arrangements, a “Wall of Fame” photo montage of every grad, video monitors that depicted photos of each student, and a wall of formal photos of each student along with a gold pennant of the high school each student will attend. And if that weren’t enough there was also a professional photographer taking photos of the grads and their families. Home Academy President Eileen White welcomed the students and guests and introduced Msgr. Maloney who offered a prayer for the graduates. Principal James McKeon then congratulated the graduates and their families and wished all a marvelous evening—which was exactly what they had! Graduation Committee Chairs Eileen Johnson and Cynthia Liapes and the committee members – the wonderful parents of the graduating class provided the graduates with an evening they’ll always remember.
The festivities continued on Sunday, June 7th. Following the 10 am Mass, celebrated by Monsignor Maloney, the graduates, their families, and Academy staff again gathered in Meletia Hall to take part in a Communion Breakfast/Awards presentation. Msgr. Maloney began the program with a prayer and words of congratulations to the graduates and their families. Following Monsignor’s opening words James McHugh, Chair of the Academy Board, James McKeon, Academy principal, and 8th grade teacher Mrs. Janet Batista, assisted by Mrs. Linda Strong, presented awards to the graduates for achievement in various academic disciplines, social and religious growth, school and community service. After the presentations, which were sponsored by parish organizations, parishioners, civic organizations, and elected officials the graduates and their families turned their attention to enjoying a wonderful meal and having a well-deserved “fun time”.
The culminating event for our SACA 8th Grade graduates was the Graduation itself, which was held in St. Anselm Church on the evening of June 12th. SACA Board President James McHugh talked about the strong educational foundation the students received from SACA and wished them a successful life journey in high school, college, and beyond. Principal James McKeon told the students that there is a time in everyone’s life when people need to lean on someone and then read the inspirational “Footprints.” Keynote speaker Father Stephen Saffron compared the grads to the newly planted rosebushes in his parish garden – and how given time and care they will too flourish. Janet Batista announced the names of the award and scholarship winners along with the high schools each student would be attending. Each student was given a warm, enthusiastic round of applause by the proud attendees. And the praise was well deserved – this truly impressive group of 34 students earned an astounding $440,000 in scholarships!
We would like to thank the parents and the dedicated staff of St. Anselm Catholic Academy for providing the young people with the opportunity to experience intellectual and religious growth. And a special thank you goes to Janet Batista for her tireless work planning and organizing the graduation. We wish all the graduates success as they pursue their studies on the high school level and beyond.
All the Best,
The St. Anselm Publicity Committee