Published June 22, 2005

A cluster of blue and white gowns cluttered the halls and approaches to Lake Region Union High School on Sunday afternoon.  Only the mortarboards atop their heads differentiated the Class of 2005 from a lost and nervous choir.

Seniors flitted from one cluster of friends to the next, the steady whir of film advance or the peculiar mechanized chime of digital cameras capturing for eternity these last fleeting moments of childhood.  Within the next two hours these young men and women would cross that intangible border between youth and adulthood, a fact cemented further by the Freeman’s Oath many would take once inside....

The lives of three Lake Region students who died in automobile accidents before they could graduate are remembered on top of Shawntel Young’s mortarboard. The tribute labeled “Wish You Were Here” recalls the lives of Philip Leno, Joel Perron and Norman Woolard.

As Gillian Perron said earlier, the high school experience cannot easily be summed up in a speech.  The sum total of hopes, dreams and words of appreciation are overwhelming, she said.

“The memories will stay alive in our minds forever,” she said.

Among those memories are the lives of classmates who did not get to see their graduation.  A moment of silence remembered classmates Joel Perron and Philip Leno.  Fifteen-year old Joel Perron died on November 30, 2002, and 17-year old Philip Leno on August 24 of 2004.  Norman Woolard also died in the August 24, 2004, accident that claimed Mr. Leno.

All three boys were remembered in a classmate’s tribute.  Though they could not be there in person for commencement, their images and spirits walked up to the stage atop the mortarboard of Shawntel Young.