By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Cassopolis Vigilant
CASSOPOLIS - Though there were only 65 graduates in Ross Beatty's Class of 2005, the scholarships they were granted totalled more than $230,000.
Class President Linaya Hass in her Salutatorian address, described "The Journey Never Ends," from "the big yellow school bus of kindergarten," through middle school "being cool when you could choose what you wanted for lunch," to finally high school, and the "best years of your life."
Valedictorian Margaret Foltz spoke of the "road less traveled," and encouraged her fellow graduates to choose their own paths "for the right reasons." She added. "live life for yourself."
The alumni of the 1980s was guest speaker Dr. Dave Weatherspoon who told the graduates their "biggest strength was the knowledge of diversity," learned in Cassopolis.
Saying the world was "once huge to me," Weatherspoon added he now can't go anywhere in the world without knowing someone.
He praised his Vandalia roots and told the students "when you are beat up, this is a great place to come back to and get your bearings."
The graduates no longer have an excuse, he added. "You control your destiny."
He also offered help should any of them seek him out at Michigan State University.