A special moment for 2020 Sandhills grads

DUNNING - On June 13 Sandhills Public Schools held a graduation ceremony for six seniors at Sandhills High School. This year it meant a little more to the seniors after months of wondering if they would get this special moment to celebrate with their families and classmates.

Unfortunately only four were able to make it to the public graduation, due to other commitments and moving away.

This year the Valedictorian was Bryan Zutavern and the Salutatorian was Dylan Lister-McIntyre.

In their speeches, the overriding theme was the fact that they couldn’t wait to be done with high school. When Sandhills Public Schools closed on March 17 due to COVID-19, they felt like it was almost a blessing in disguise.

“I’ve heard it countless times enjoy the times that you are in school,” Salutatorian Dylan Lister-McIntyre said. “I always brushed it off, because from the day I started school I couldn’t wait to be done with it. Now as I look back at all my years in school from the perspective of a senior, I really wish I wouldn’t have taken all those memories for granted.”

Their attitude on how they felt changed as they realized they wouldn’t be able to make any more memories in their high school at Dunning as students. It made them both wish that they hadn’t taken all those moments for granted.

“The present events have really opened my eyes,” Bryan Zutavern said. “I thought for sure I was ready to go to college and leave high school behind in the dust. Turns out my life inside of high school means a little bit more to me than I thought. This is truly a moment where you don’t realize what something means until you lost it.”

Luckily over the last several weeks, the situation surrounding COVID-19 has changed for the better. As restrictions loosened on public gatherings, the decision was made by Sandhills Public Schools to have a graduation ceremony with friends and family of each graduate in their own separate groups, six feet apart from each other.

On June 20 at 2 p.m., Thedford, the school Sandhills coops with for sports, will hold their graduation.

For a list of the six graduates and the scholarships they received, go the Custer County Chief website at www.custercountychief.com.

Celeste Rogers Pictured at left are members of the Sandhills Class of 2020. From left is Bryan Zutavern, Dylan Lister and Coy Johnson holding Brooklyn Leach at their graduation ceremony June 13. Not pictured are Andrea Meyer and Colton Barela who were unable to attend the graduation.