Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - Their name was on the marquee, the lights were set and graduating seniors from the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School were ready to take to the stage as classmates one last time.
Before a booming capacity crowd at the Calvin Theatre Thursday night, PVPA faculty and staff said farewell to the schools first crop of students to have matriculated all the way from seventh grade to graduation.
They also said goodbye to Bob Brick, one of the schools co-founders and longtime executive director, who received a commemorative plaque and several standing ovations. Brick, after 15 years with PVPA, is resigning on June 30 with plans to start a new charter school, called the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School. The site is expected to be in Amherst.
Before electrifying the audience as a tap-dancing Frankensteins monster in a surprise performance of Frankie Does the Calvin, a scene pulled from Mel Brooks 1974 classic Young Frankenstein, Brick compared lifes obstacles to learning how to surf and encouraged students to have the courage to paddle back out into the waves even if they get tossed a few times.
No, Ive never ridden a wave on a surfboard, but I have experienced the most amazing 15 years of my life fashioning and working at PVPA. I thank you all for riding with me because the ride would not have been so special without each and every one of you, Brick said, before allowing graduates one minute to scramble through the theater, find their families and give them a big hug.
Tonight I leave PVPA with great sadness and a broken heart, Brick said, a broken heart that is held together and strong as ever because of all of your love.
Also sharing a message of resiliency was Beth Graham, PVPAs director of curriculum and instruction, who compared her struggle to learn the piano score with a hand injury for the schools performance of Peter Pan to the unexpected tests life presents.
Learning involves taking risks, and the greater the risk the deeper the satisfaction, Graham said. Dont be in a hurry to erase your pencil marks, take the time to reflect and then end well.
On a lighter note, senior class speaker Maisie Dolan described her classmates as pioneers and shared a story about being stung by a stingray on a family vacation and the conflicting advice she received from those at the scene.
After being continually misinformed on the beach with solutions to the sting, including ice and urine, Dolan said she arrived at a solution when a passing homeless man suggested putting her foot in hot water.
Old fixes may not work in new situations. You need to take risks and go out on that shaky limb where more often than not youll find an unthinkable horizon. So keep an open mind and a curious heart for they will serve you well as the unexpected strikes, she said.
So we have to ask ourselves this: Did our education at PVPA encourage us to search widely and joyfully and with open minds and hearts? Dolan said in closing.
And the answer is a strong and unmistakable yes.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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