Remarks to the DFHS Class of 2024…

To the Board of Education, Superintendent Slentz, Administration, Faculty members, Parents, Family members, Friends, Students, and Graduates…

When we think about our village of Dobbs Ferry, and our of course our high school that has stood proudly on Broadway since it was completed 90 year ago in 1934, words like tradition, pride, community, and family immediately come to mind. Whether you have lived in this community your whole life, which many of you have, or moved here more recently, the timeless and nostalgic feel of our village can be immediately felt and what makes Dobbs Ferry truly a unique jewel of a community.

Our high school recently celebrated our 25^th anniversary as an IB World School, and for me, I just completed by 25^th year in education, and my 13^th as the principal of our amazing high school. In so many ways, Dobbs Ferry has become my home, it is the place where I have made my life’s work, and it continues to be an honor to serve this community.

To our students, the 123^rd group of graduates from our Dobbs Ferry Schools, you now join a long line of graduates who will always call Dobbs Ferry their home, and who have since left our school and gone on to live incredible lives in all parts of the world. Like so many of them, the journey for you began at Springhurst, and on Thursday you walked through the hallways of that special school for the final time as students in our Dobbs Ferry Schools. The Springhurst Walk is a tradition that we started with the Class of 2016, when all of you were in 4^th grade, and it provides final opportunity to go back to where it all started, to see and thank your former teachers before moving on to the next chapter, and of course you got to hear and sing “I remember Springhurst” one final time. In every way, it connects the past with the present, while allowing you to come full circle to the school that was your first home here in Dobbs Ferry.

Bridging the past with the present, coupled with the importance of staying connected to our roots and our home, is a consistent theme that fully captures the essence of what it means to be from Dobbs Ferry. This graduating class, comprised of only 88 students, is in many ways a throwback to the small graduating classes that were typical of our high school many decades ago. However, regardless of the class size, one thing that has always been consistent is the close friendships, connections, and bonds between our students. For so many of you, this comes as a result of moving along through school starting at kindergarten, and it includes countless playdates, parties, teams, and events that you experienced together over the last thirteen years. For the first time, you are moving in different directions, but the bonds that have been built will always remain, and regardless of the road that each of your takes, Dobbs Ferry will always be your home, and for many of you, the place that you will always hold closest to your heart.

Earlier this year, I received a letter from the daughter of Elbano Joseph Schezzini. “Al,” as his Dobbs friends called him, was a graduate of our Dobbs Ferry High School Class of 1948, and she reached out to me on his behalf soon after he passed away to both share his story and, more importantly, his personal belongings from his Dobbs Ferry years that he kept with him and cherished for his whole life because of how much this our high school meant to him. During his years in Dobbs, Al was an athlete, and his friends called him “Cavalo,” the Italian word for horse, because of how fast he could run. And in that package we found pictures, including one from his football days that was taken behind our school before a game against Hastings, along with his high school diploma, class photos, pictures from his baseball team where he was one of the “four horsemen” on that year’s team, his class ring, his draft card from when he served in the Air Force during the Korean War, and even his American Legion Cap which he wore proudly on Veterans Day each year.  All of these items are currently displayed in a case on the second floor of our school where Al likely walked past every day because the main building really hasn’t changed at all since that time.

After sharing his story of a beautiful life lived in a touching letter, his daughter, whose name is Sabrina, concluded, “while my dad lost touch with his old friends when he moved to Florida, he never forgot the love of his hometown, and his pride in it. When he passed away, all of these items that I’m sharing were included in his most treasured belongings, and I felt that the only right thing to do would be to return them to the school. After all, his history is the school’s history, AS ARE all of you who attend DFHS today. So this is my father, who walked these halls and played these field and loved this place. You could call him Elbano, or Cavalo, and he’d answer. But mostly, his friends would just call him Al.”

So why do I share this with all of you, our graduates? I share this to remind you that as members of our Dobbs Ferry community, and for you as graduates, we are all part of something that is so much bigger than any of us as individuals. For over a century Dobbs Ferry High School has been the place that so many have called home, and all of you are a product of the lasting legacy and mark that was made by generations of Dobbs Ferry graduates, teachers, leaders, board members, and members of our school community who came before you. And now, you join the long and proud tradition of graduates, and like them, your legacy will be forever imprinted on our school based not only on what you have accomplished while here, but more importantly on the life that you lead upon leaving us, and all that you will go on to do and accomplish outside of this local community.

And as you go out and do just that, and as you now prepare to scatter in 88 different directions and carve your own individual paths, never lose that connection to your home, and never forget the friends around you who were there since the very beginning. Because while you will go on to meet so many new amazing people in your life and make so many new friends, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like the childhood friends that you have beside you, and they are irreplaceable. Earlier this year many of you had the chance to meet a group of graduates from our Class of 1962. We watched as they laughed, shared inside jokes, and recalled moments and memories from over fifty years ago. It was a beautiful thing to watch, and what was most striking was that all of these people, now into their late seventies, shared a close bond that was unbreakable because of their childhood spent here in Dobbs Ferry. For them, Dobbs Ferry would always be their home.

For this class of 88 students, my advice and hope is that you do the same, and as you move on to new endeavors that will likely take you to all corners of the world, never lose touch, be there for one another, support one another, cry on each shoulders if its needed, and laugh with one another as much as possible. Because the people sitting here today are your home, just as it has been for thousands of Dobbs Ferry graduates who have become before you.

And with that, I’ll close by congratulating all of you, our graduates, on successfully navigating and completing this important chapter in your lives. Like so many before you, including the members from that graduating Class of 1962, as well as Al from the Class of 1948, go out and live an amazing life. Don’t take the time that you have for granted, stay present in the moment, set goals, chase your dreams, and always remember that Dobbs Ferry is your home, and one day this graduating class can come back when all of you are in your late seventies, and speak to the future Dobbs Ferry High School Class of 2074. Hopefully I’ll still be around to join you for that.

It has been an honor to serve as your principal over these past four years, I thank you for allowing me to be part of such an important time in your lives, and I wish you the very best as you leave all of us here today.

Congratulations to each and every one of you, the Dobbs Ferry High School Class of 2024.