Last Wednesday evening’s Senior Pinning Ceremony sponsored by the Renaissance Club marked the first of many emotional times Shawnee High School seniors will be spending with their parents over the next three months.
Lenape Regional High School District Director of Curriculum and Instruction Heather Xenakis accompanied by two LRHSD Board of Education members David Stow and Steve Lee were among the special guests that joined the seniors and their parents.
Principal Matthew Campbell kicked off the night by comparing being the parent of a teenage to the baking process.
“When you begin the baking process you have to be very detail oriented, getting all the ingredients together and making sure they’re ready to go,” Campbell said. “You put it in the oven and you think you’re done and that’s not the case.”
Campbell alluded to how the students need their parents now more than ever, they can’t just put the cake in the oven and walk away or it will burn.
“This end process, as frustrating as it may be, it’s critical that you stay active in their lives,” he said.
The overall purpose of the evening was to celebrate this relationship by publicly pledging their mutual support moving forward and ensuring the students relish in every moment of their senior year before it is over.
The parents pledged to uphold the sanctity of the family, acceptance of individual responsibility and the need for parents to be role models.
The seniors, in turn, pledged to continue to honor the trust and faith placed in them by their families.
“We at Shawnee, want you seniors to remember to take the love and support of your families, school community and township with you as you move forward to enjoy the remainder of your senior year and as you embark on your new beginnings,” Debra Bunn said.
Bunn is a business teacher at Shawnee and also a parent of senior student, Christopher Bunn, so she thought it would be appropriate to share a few words at the ceremony having witnessed so many of these students grow up as classmates, playmates, teammates or even students.
Bunn made it a point to encourage her students to take the time to appreciate those whose love, trust and faith surrounds them, even after they have moved on to a new chapter of their lives.
She encouraged the students to remember all of the loving people in attendance when faced with a difficult decision in the future.
“Remember who you are and where you came from and you will always make the right decision,” Bunn said.
Campbell referred to this class as the one that has witnessed the most change in his ten years with the high school.
He could not say enough about the tremendous amount of leadership portrayed by a group that could have very well mailed it in this past year but decided to embrace the changing of the schedule they grew so comfortable with and make the best of it.
“I really wanted to thank them for that,” Campbell said.
To conclude the ceremony the parents and the students were lead by 2016 class president Eric Biehn and his father Gary in the exchanging of the pins as a symbol of love, commitment, pride and dignity.
