PHOTO GALLERIES: Penn Yan, Odessa-Montour and Hammondsport graduations

TRI-COUNTY AREA--Three area schools held graduation ceremonies, Friday, June 22. Penn Yan and Hammondsport were able to be outside while Odessa held the 2018 celebration in the auditorium.
At Penn Yan, student speakers Emily Wunder, Donald McMahon and Benedict DeMoras addressed The Class of 2018.
"Every single one of our futures is unknown...Although some things are out of our control, we do have the ability to make choices that will help determine our future paths," said Class President Emily Wunder. "Setting goals is always important in order to achieve success. We can decide how hard we want to work which will determine how successful we may become."
McMahon followed by talking about the impact growing up in Penn Yan had. "All of us here tonight have come from many different backgrounds, some of us came from other states, others from other countries, but here we are in Penn Yan, New York. Although this town is only 5,000 people, the effect it can have is enormous. Just like the stars in the sky, that have guided people since the dawn of time, we can impact people for years to come."
Benedict DeMoras talked about all the help the graduates had along their path to success. "Making the journey all the way to our graduation has certainly not been a task we could have completed on our own. Many people along the way have helped us succeed at our academics, schoolwork and our extracurricular activities. Without the help of our parents who supported us at home, the bus drivers that brought us to school and took us wherever we needed to go, our athletic coaches who told us to always give it our best, our teachers who taught us everything we needed to know to graduate, the food service staff who served us lunch everyday, the custodians who cleaned up the messes we sometimes made, the school administrators who made schooldays run smoothly and finally our community who inspired us, guided us and gave us this awesome place to grow up in. Without any of these people, none of what we have achieved would have been possible."
The guest speaker was Debra Curbeau, who instilled the ideas of teamwork and learning from failure and being humble in success.
The Odessa-Montour graduation ceremony was held in the Fetter-Brown Auditorium, Friday evening. The graduating seniors heard from class Valedictorian Hailey Perraut, and received a number of awards before being presented with their diplomas.
"Some of us have a chance to further our education, and some of us will get the opportunity to go into the workforce; we all will be given the chance to start our new lives," said Perraut. "I hope I can convince all of you to be optimistic and kind to all of those around you."
Colin Marsh was the salutatorian for Odessa. The class included 59 seniors.
The Hammondsport commencement exercise was also held Friday evening.
This year, Rachael Derby was the valedictorian of the class of 2018. Paige MacDonald was the salutatorian.

Penn Yan:

Odessa-Montour:Odessa photos by: Taylor Rounds for the REVIEW&EXPRESS

Hammondsport: