Wolverine families, well-wishers and a hand-sized toy lion with a graduation cap and a “Hooray!” message had Wiscasset Middle High School’s Stover Auditorium mostly filled for commencement June 2. 

The lion gets passed around as each member of her family graduates, Class of 2016 member Alisyn Richardson said as she held it after graduation.

The night’s speeches were kind and inspiring, she said. “It was all great.”

While for one family a toy lion was tradition, graduating senior Daren Wood’s mother Karen Hefler brought up his cat Buffy in a brief interview in the folding chairs. The cat will be broken-hearted and need a lot of extra attention from the rest of the family after Wood leaves home in September, said Hefler, seated next to her husband, Wood’s father Gregg Wood. They expressed pride in their son, and Hefler acknowledged some sadness that Daren Wood’s high school years were over.

It will also be an adjustment for the graduate’s brother, Grant Hefler, who also attends WMHS, because the two are friends, their father said.

It was the first graduation under the school’s new name, class marshal Remy Segovia noted at the ceremony’s outset. His essay later in the program got the crowd laughing at Segovia’s detailed account of a broken clip on his pants at this year’s prom. In an interview later, keynote speaker U.S. Sen. Angus King, I - Maine, said he didn’t think he would ever forget hearing it.

Segovia recalled teachers Cynthia Turcotte and Prema Long finding him a safety pin, then some paperclips. The person who passed him the paperclips told him something that touched his heart, he said. “He said, ‘Ms. Long found these in her car. She said that if they don’t work she can go to the store for you.’”

The story’s point was that WMHS teachers legitimately care about students and will go out of their way to help them,  Segovia added.

Classmates also have always helped one another out, he said. Of course they did, he said: “We’re part of Wiscasset, and Wiscasset is a community that always looks to help others within that community, sort of like a family,” he said.

Growing up in a small town created a close, supportive class that would meet up for study sessions, bonfires and hot dog-eating contests, fellow senior essayist Kennedy Orr said.

“(At) the same time, it makes it that much harder to leave. There is about to be a huge change for all of us ...,” Orr said. But change is good and something they’ve done all their lives, she said. “... And as I look back, I am happy to say that we have all changed together.”

Senior essayist Samantha Arsenault told the gathering she was thankful for the class’s teachers, friends and siblings; and most importantly, she was thankful for the parents, she said.

“(They) nurtured us in times both good and bad ... held our hands on the ice and carried us even when we were a little too old for that, and ... eventually helped us grow into strong, free-thinking and independent individuals.

“Though at times it may not feel like it, because of the support of the people around us we are now ready to go out into the world and discover all it has to offer for ourselves,” Arsenault said.

Night fell during the ceremony. In front of the school afterward, Neil Page stood in a light mist next to the school bus he would be driving to take the new graduates to Portland for the class’s overnight, Project Graduation cruise. Nearby, at the foot of the school steps, Savannah Curran’s arms were full with bouquets and a balloon.

Asked what she was feeling about just graduating, she said, “I’m ready to move on.”

The school awarded 42 diplomas this year.

The first one of the evening was awarded posthumously to Ryan Mullens. A 2014 ATV accident claimed the Whitefield teen’s life. Presenting the diploma to Mullens’ parents Wayne Mullens and Stacy Savage on-stage, Assistant Principal Nate Stubbert announced the senior class’s $250 donation to Ryan’s Way, a scholarship fund named for the teen.

The donation and the fund are a way for his son’s name to go on, Wayne Mullens said after the ceremony. “I miss him, a lot. He was a huge part of my life.”

Savage said she was feeling overwhelmed, and grateful.

The graduates wore green ribbons honoring their classmate.