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GALLERY: Carrie Lane honors graduates

  • Carrie Lane graduates sit at the front of the First Congregational Church during Saturday's graduation ceremony.

  • Graduates move graduation tassels at the end of Saturday's ceremony.

  • Zackory James Phend celebrates with family and friends after Saturday's graduation ceremony.

  • Topanga Nikita Thompson

  • Lainey Juhl

  • Abigail Stubenvoll

  • Brandon J Cormeny

  • David Fry

  • Nieko Beebe

  • Storm House

  • Jordan Wesley Parks

  • Tiffany Jimenez

  • William Lechuga-Nava

  • Zackory James Phend

  • Students hi-five during Josh Dean's keynote speech.

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

The Carrie Lane program honored 11 high school graduates on Saturday with friends and family during commencement ceremonies at First Congregational Church.

Most students graduating on Saturday had been part of the program for two years, Director Don Betts said. Students can join the program starting their junior year of high school.

“It’s a fun class, a different class, they’re all unique,” Betts said. “We laughed a lot with this group. As far as what they can do — they can do about anything they want.”

“What this class has realized, maybe more than some other classes, is that ‘When I get knocked down, I just need to get back up again.’ Some classes, it takes a little bit longer for them to figure out,” Betts added. “Their path has been anything but straight, but they’ve figured out, ‘if I keep going, I can do anything.'”

The Carrie Lane program began during the 1991-92 school year, Betts said, and has taken several new turns as staff learned how to help students in Charles City.

“At the time I came, it was designed for students who’d dropped out of school. The clientele was 19- and 20-year-olds mostly,” Betts said. “We backed that off because what we were doing is letting them drop out and hoping they would bounce back. … We decided to make this more of a prevention, so we slid our focus down to the high school, toward the junior and senior classes.”

During her speech, graduate Abby Stubenvoll thanked Betts and his coworkers for their work with Carrie Lane students, helping students deal with “things that don’t matter anymore,” Stubenvoll said.

“These are the teachers I’ll always remember,” Stubenvoll told the audience.

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