By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Last week I attended a two-hour graduation ceremony that included the customary tears and cheers and too many speeches, but I didn’t complain about sitting too long because it became a wonderful, inspiring tribute to courage and determination.
It was the celebration of the Class of 2023 at the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Training Center at Thelma in Johnson County. I was among the proud spectators who must have had a hay fever outbreak because we all wiped our eyes several times.
Many of us were touched emotionally during the processional when more than 120 graduates from 59 counties marched into the room either walking normally, or walking with a cane or leg braces, or steering a motorized wheelchair, or being pushed in a regular wheelchair or being led by a staff person because of vision or other impairment.
In case you don’t recognize the name, the CDPVTC is a residential school with a proud 50-year reputation of providing Kentucky’s disabled adults with services that enable most of them to achieve suitable employment and independence.
I was there with other family members in support of my granddaughter. She graduated after 14 months with a GED, a driver’s license, and a completion certificate in materials management. With many distribution centers and smaller warehouses scattered about, we feel her employment opportunities will be abundant.
But that graduation event was about more than jobs. It was about hope, followed by hard work and determination and opportunity. The graduation theme summed it up in this hopeful phrase: Better Things Ahead.
My 44 years in public higher education included more graduation ceremonies than I could count but none of them had someone like the young class member who electrified the audience with her singing of “This is Me” from “The Greatest Showman” on Broadway, the account of the life of P. T. Barnum.
That character was the bearded woman who danced through the streets of London with her oddball collection of sideshow performers, singing their opposition to the prejudice faced by those who are different.
Rosemary Caudill of Morehead received a prolonged standing ovation, and I knew instantly that we were about to get an uplifting lesson in tolerance and courage.
(Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com).
