WHITMAN – Who can and should care for and clean old headstones at historic site such as Whitman’s Mount Zion Cemetery?
Whitman resident Leslie DiOrio has asked the Select Board on Tuesday, Aug.1 for official permission to do that work at Mount Zion. The Board granted DiOrio’s request for official permission.
She had pointed out Mount Zion qualifies as a National Historic Site, due to the date on the oldest stone there – February 1733.
“As a result, we can, as a town, obtain funding through the state of Massachusetts and Community Preservation funding for the upkeep of the cemetery, the stones and some of the groundwork,” she said.
She shared with the Select Board on Tuesday, Aug. 1 a copy of a letter she had sent to the Department of Public Works in May outlining her request for formal permission to clean the stones at Mount Zion, which is not far from her residence.
She also advocated a Cemetery Committee for Mount Zion, since it is the only cemetery in Whitman that does not have one.
According to the National Park Service’s website, “Soiling and staining of cemetery gravestones, monuments, markers, and statuary can result from soil splashing, pollution, rusting bolts or other metal features, bird deposits, and berries or sap dropping onto the stone. Biological growth, such as algae, lichen, or moss, can cover the surface, cause the stone to decay, and make reading the stone difficult.”
“The reason I feel strongly that a person should ask the town for permission, and I’m coming to you for permission, is that a lot of damage can be done by just walking in and cleaning with any substance and not knowing what you’re doing,” DiOrio said.
She has sought out the specialized training involved, she said, including attending lots of seminars and work cleaning historic stones in every New England state.
“This is something that I care deeply about, and as I clean these stones, I actually keep a family tree, and go on familysearch.org, which is a free website with a universal tree,” she said. “I have created documentation and pulled the official document for all the residents of that cemetery.”
She offered to take interested officials with her on Friday. Aug. 4 for the next work she planned to do.
Select Board member Justin Evans asked whether there is a level of training they should look for if anyone else came forward to seek permission to clean historic gravestones.
“You never want to hear they are planning to use soap or bleach or any kind of metal brush,” she said. Biologically-based cleaners are used on historic gravestones and markers.
DiOrio suggested asking about techniques and materials they planned to use, noting she has been asked those very questions every time she has sought permission to clean stones.
Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci asked about liability, but DiOrio said that should not be a concern unless stones were being moved or renovated.
She told the Select Board that she has been cleaning the stones for about a year, having first broached the topic with the late Marie Lailer of the Historic Commission.
Lailer learned that the DPW maintains cemetery grounds, but not the headstones.
“I didn’t receive a response to this, but they did cover it in one of their board meetings,” she said.
DiORio also provided the Select Board with a copy of Terra Firma, a state document which informs about best practices in historic cemetery care.
“The reason I didn’t receive a response [from the DPW Commission] was that they felt that while they were not going to ‘get in my way,’ and were willing to allow me to continue the work there, they were not willing to give anyone ‘official permission,’” she said.
DiOrio’s said her understanding about the DPW Commissioners’ meeting was that headstone care should be families that give permission.
“The challenge with that is, it doesn’t follow best practices in cemetery care,” she said, emphasizing that is not meant to be criticism of the DPW. “But, when you talk about cemetery care and who grants permission, it really is the grounds of the cemetery, which is the town of Whitman in this case.”
Mount Zion is owned by the town of Whitman. Previously a family burial site, it was procured by the town in 1851.
“When you talk about families giving permission, it is down to the third generation,” she said. “For example, I can clean my great-grandmother’s stone, but not my great-great-grandmother’s stone.”
Her family is buried in Mount Hope in Boston, where DiOrio said she couldn’t just walk in and clean a stone, because it is a maintained, private cemetery in that case. Since Whitman owns Mount Zion, she needs town permission to care for stones there.
Historic Commission Chair Molly Schnabel said she agreed with everything DiOrio said, except for one thing.
“The state has the money for preservation and she’s right about these cemeteries,” Schnabel said. “We have money already.”
The Commission has $20,000 through the Community Preservation Act (CPA) and is seeking matching grants from the state.
“This cemetery should be on that group we’re looking to do,” she said. Once matching grants are obtained, they can hire state-approved workers come in and, while they don’t do stone preservation work, she said DiOrio’s idea is a good one, adding that the number of GAR stones [Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization of Union Army veterans after the Civil War] is remarkable, and that even though the town does not have a GAR building, its Civil War era history is remarkably well preserved.
“But it needs to be discussed, I think, with the historic commission,” Schnabel said of the stone project. “If you want to work with us on [the grant] that would be great.”
DiOrio said she is not applying for grant money.
Schnabel added there are three cemeteries in town that need to be watched, including one on Pine Street as well as Colebrook and Mount Zion.
“You can see some of the work [at Mount Zion] that Marie and I started and I’ve been continuing,” DiOrio said.

HANSON – What’s in store for the Hanson Fire Department now that there’s a new chief in the corner office?
More of the same, if you ask Chief Robert O’Brien – who sees himself as something of a conduit between the department’s past and its future. A 27-year fire service veteran, O’Brien took command officially in June, after some five years as a deputy chief and several weeks as acting chief after the retirement of Chief Jerome Thompson Jr.
“Chief Thompson was always very encouraging,” he said of new ideas he had suggested as he climbed the ranks. “Some of them work, some don’t work, and that’s where encouraging people is valuable.”
It is an approach he is continuing as chief of a department that Thompson had already brought a long way from where it was 16 years ago.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff going on, which is good,” he said. “We have a very young department. Their enthusiasm, their way of thinking, is – I’m going to call it non-traditional.
“That’s what I’m really pushing for the direction of the department now, for the firefighters and the officers to think outside the box … basically throw it against the wall, and if it sticks, great, If it doesn’t, then we continue the way we’ve been going.”
There have already been a lot of ideas they are trying, including use of the experience new hires have until they can go to fire academy. One has fire experience and has been put on shift, another has paramedic experience but not firefighting training, so he is assigned to the first ambulance out the door, which leaves three firefighters and a lieutant available to answer fire calls until he can attend the academy.
“Firewise, we don’t want to put him in a precarious position without being trained,” O’Brien said. It also allows the second ambulance to get out the door faster.
“My mantra to them is, ‘Let’s give it a try,’” he said. “Having a young department, the experience level is different from what I have.”
While maintaining a lot of the department’s traditions and respect for its history, O’Brien said technology is making a lot of changes as it adheres to the department’s tradition of aggressively seeking grant funding for equipment, projects and programs. Emergency management has provided a weather TV system – which, no doubt, came in handy during Saturday’s tornado warnings – and ROCC 911 funding pays for the department’s security and dispatch systems. Those are just two areas where grant funding has been secured for the department.
A lot of information on what to do to prepare for weather extremes, and what resources in town are available, for example, are posted to residents via social media on the department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“We’re really fortunate here that Rob Heffernan is a big technology guru,” he said. “All these TVs and monitors that you see, especially the big one [in the main room which is used for virtual classes and webinars], the townspeople didn’t pay for any of it.”
As he spoke, one of those video screens, which displays a map most of the time, alarms went off as Whitman Fire was dealing with a heat emergency involving a person collapsed on South Avenue. A line of white LED lights was illuminated along the ceiling as well as a shorter line of red LED lights. Had it been at night the red lights would be more prominent at first, so it would be less jarring to the 24/7 crews being awakened by alarms until firefighters’ eyes adjust to the light.
“That’s why I’m encouraging people to come on in,” he said. “Come see your fire station. You paid for it, but what’s interesting is what they don’t have to pay for.”
While most technology equipment is funded by grant money, a majority of that in the apparatus bay is a combination of grant money and the ambulance account. The ladder truck replacement, for example, is being looked at as a 50-percent grant-sourced project.
“I’ve been very fortunate my whole career,” he said. “Other chiefs outside [of town], because of my involvement with technical rescue … I’ve gotten very involved with MEMA.”
It’s been a boon to networking, he said.
Hanson Fire and Mass. Maritime Academy plan to run a big tabletop exercise in April, that the school’s seniors are working.
“It’s going to be a little different for the town,” O’Brien said. “Chief Thompson allowed me to handle all the emergency management stuff, but I’m starting to go through things now of a continuity of operations plan for the town.”
Hanson does not currently have a robust emergency operation plan. A comprehensive plan was developed just about the time Thompson retired.
O’Brien has also presented a training course at Mass. Maritime for the helicopter aquatic rescue team, for which he is a program coordinator. The team specializes in flood and swift water rescues, from a concept developed in North Carolina.
“We’ve been working on it for five years and now it’s up and running,” he said.
O’Brien is also pushing for firefighters to be better educated in their craft and learning from what other departments have done or what they’ve experienced outside of Hanson Fire, to be more valuable members of the department.
Shifts are excited about new training techniques they can learn as a unit, as well.
“Firefighting is changing constantly and what it was 30 or 40 years ago is much different than what it is today,” he said, adding that department leadership is also sitting down with firefighters to discuss their short-term and long-term career goals.
While ambulance receipts also fund equipment like the new amulance being sought at the October Town Meeting, O’Brien said most ambulance costs to patients are handled through insurance.
“We don’t go to collections for it,” he said. “We don’t want people not to call the ambulance because of the cost.”
He also stressed the importance of calling 911 when help is needed, instead of the business line, because there might not be someone available to answer the business line if they are out on a call, prevention or training.
In fact, if O’Brien had an unlimited budget, staffing would be his top priority.
“Right now, we are looking at a SAFER grant,” he said. “It will pay 100-percent [of costs involved with] firefighter hiring – physicals, equipment, training, health care and retirement for three years, which is a great deal … But at the end of three years, the municipalities take ownership of that.”
He’s working with the Select Board and Finance Committee to determine how the department can afford that level of staffing.
More people on ambulances get them out the door quicker and more people on the fire line are important because fires burn hotter and faster than they used to because of chemicals used in buildings.
The May 2022 Town Meeting also approved funds for a feasibility study for the station, which should be going out to bid shortly, but O’Brien is aware a new Highway facility is a more pressing priority in town right now, and rightfully so, but the fire station is approaching 50 years old – and originally shared space with the library and senior center.
“The building was not designed for 24-hour occupancy,” he said. “Our bunkrooms are make-shift and are in the attic.”
It was also not designed for a co-ed fire crew, and the department now has two female firefighters.
“We’re the best-looking building in town, and a lot of that is due to the [maintenance and upkeep] done by the firefighters,” O’Brien said, noting he does not see any reason to move the Fire Department to a different location – which leaves a decision on how to improve the building where it is.
“We’re doing the groundwork,” he said.

How do you get to know a new town?
If you are Beth Sobiloff and Marcia Rothwell, you post your intention to visit on Facebook, and ask for suggestions as to where to eat and what to do when you arrive. That’s how the two of them ended up starting the day with a veggie omelet and French toast at Cowbells Café on Thursday, July
Sobiloff and Rothwell, known for their Facebook mission to visit every town in Massachusetts, record their adventures on a webcast travelogue called Two Grannies on the Road.
Something of a modern-day, high-tech combination of the late Scripps-Howard newspaper columnist Ernie Pyle’s Depression-era travels across America to introduce his countrymen to each other, revived on television by CBS’ Charles Kuralt in the 1970s. The Massachusetts mission is the latest Sobiloff has undertaken, with Rothwell as her third partner.
Whitman is the 56th Bay State community the vlog has visited and as they rattled of some of those towns, this writer couldn’t help but replay the vintage country tune, “I’ve Been Everywhere” in the back of my mind.
“We’ve been all over the state,” Sobiloff said as she began listing some of the towns. “Marion, Mattapoisett, Fairhaven, Dartmouth, New Bedford and then we’ve done a couple places on the Cape … we’ve been up in Newburyport, Newbury and West Newbury … we’ve also been out to North Adams and Adams and Williamstown and a five-day trip to the Berkshires.”
Quite a few towns in the greater Worcester area have also been destinations.
After breakfast, they had plans to head over to the Historical Society to chat about Whitman’s history and how they might add historical site drive-bys to the itinerary. They had an appointment to interview Josh Phippen, of the South Shore Boxing Gym on South Avenue and were going to fit in lunch at another Whitman eatery before stopping for an ice cream at Peaceful Meadows on the way out of town.
“We end our day with ice cream.” Sobiloff said.
They took photos of their breakfast entrees and video recorded their reactions to the menu items for their Facebook page before eating.
“I’ve got French toast made with French bread, which you don’t see all the time,” Sobiloff reported. “I’ve got real maple syrup, which is a must for me… Very good. I like the French toast, nice and thick..”
From the Plymouth area, Sobiloff said her son lives in Hanson and her daughter works in Whitman, so she is a bit familiar with it, but as always they let the community give suggestions for their specific destinations.
“We try to do something unusual,” Rothwell said, mentioning the boxing gym visit. “I hate boxing,” she laughed. She told gym owner Phippen the same thing in an often-funny interview posted the Grannies Facebook page: facebook.com/twogranniesontheroad.
That visit also included the ladies climbing into the ring to test their fighting stance as well as a round or two with the speedbag and heavy bag.
“We often will do drive-arounds to view historic buildings that aren’t necessarily open, monuments, parks, things of that nature,” Sobiloff said.
“This town seems to have a lot of things,” Rothwell said.
This writer interviewed them – and they interviewed me – it was a mutual meeting of the media mavens of the South Shore.
A native of Wethersfield, Conn., Rothwell is a retired nurse who worked at Hartford Hospital for 46 years, but Sobiloff, an Ohio native, still works as a web designer. Each of the women is a bona fide grandmother – with six grandchildren each. They also love to joke around that Rothwell is the third “second granny.”
“I actually started [her travels] in 2010,” Sobiloff said. “I’d had my business for about eight years and I was single at the time, my youngest son was getting ready to graduate from college … and I just started thinking about how I hadn’t had a vacation in eight years.”
Taking her kids cross county in an RV had always been a dream of hers, but she never had the chance to do it. Then she realized she had a job she could do anywhere.
“I thought maybe I could figure out a way to travel and work across the country,” she said. Not wanting to travel alone, Sobiloff asked friend Ginny Just, who, as a graphic designer, was also not tied to an office.
“That made me think of the name: ‘Two Grannies on the Road,’” she said. “I got together with her and told her my idea and she said, ‘I’m in.’”
Sobiloff’s first partner in travel vlogging created the logo and Sobiloff created the website: twogranniesontheroad.com.
“The deal was to get sponsorships from big companies like Winnebago,” she said. “We did some networking about it, we did some proposals to big companies for sponsorships, but we were coming out of absolutely nowhere – nobody knew who we were.”
RV life may be more of a thing now, but 12 years ago it was a strange notion to some of the recreational vehicle companies.
“We just evolved over the years,” Sobiloff said. The next idea was to interview Baby Boomers being forced out of jobs at a time of economic downturn and what they were doing to reinvent themselves, to inspire other Baby Boomers to go for their dreams.
She made that cable access program in East Bridgewater for a couple of years, before Sobiloff and her then-partner each met a new husband and boyfriend, respectively.
Sobiloff and her husband moved to Plymouth and her first partner retired.
“I had guest grannies a lot of times,” she said.
“She tells me these stories,” Rothwell laughed. “I’m worried about her freezer.”
Guest Grannie Debbie Phalen, a retired optician who had started candy business in her basement, agreed to come on board for the mission to visit every city and town in Massachusetts after she and Sobiloff had worked together on a few shows. Phalen moved to Florida to be near her daughter about a year ago.
Enter Rothwell, who met at a social luncheon when a mutual acquaintance introduced them.
“Here I am,” Rothwell said.
Once Rothwell writes down the responses to her Facebook inquiries about a town, she makes some calls to confirm schedules and it’s time to hit the road. She also calls each town’s historical society for an after-breakfast trip.
“Maybe there are sights that we need to see,” she said. “This town, it was interesting how much different things, historically have taken place. … It’s always exciting what we find.”
Then there’s the editing to do before an episode goes up on their web site.
Next week the Two Grannies follow their road back to Western Massachusetts to Shelburne and Buckland. Follow along on Facebook.
They also speak at senior centers. Libraries and over-55 communities on their travels. Contact them at [email protected], their websites and Facebook page.

Hanson native uncorks a thriller
ByHANSON – Is Tim Wirzburger clairvoyant, or just an apt history student with the patience to see the value in a story idea that was worth countless rewrites?
About 15 years ago, the Hanson native began work on the idea for what became his first novel “In Plain Sight” [Palisade Media, 2022, 368 pages, trade paperback. ISBN#2370000893932] about a summer camp in western Pennsylvania with a sinister mission: hand-pick the teens to be indoctrinated into a group mentality toward a specific goal – for which some would be later selected for clandestine roles.
“Camp Bohr was supposed to be a normal summer camp: cabins in the woods, a beautiful lake, and dozens of teenagers just like Chris. However, strange things begin happening almost immediately – and Chris seems to be the only one who’s noticing,” Wirzburger writes on his website timwirburger.com.
Social media, the use of technology in such plots and other modern tools of politics and social movements also come into play, but any similarities to coup attempts, real or imagined, is purely coincidental, as the movie disclaimers read. But the novel’s fictional anti-government plot hinged to a date of Oct. 6 was not an attempt to reflect real events.
“I think we all know these kids,” Wirzburger said. “It’s supposed to be universal. … It’s not any political commentary. It’s a story, and I think it’s just coincidental that events in the last couple of years [mean] you might see some of that in there.”
The backstories of some characters and an ambiguous time period lend themselves to helping the imagination to wander into all kinds of scenarios.
“People have always said that something like this could happen,” Wirzburger said of the plot central to his story. “At the time I was first writing it, I was a teenager and I wasn’t plugged into anything political. I think the best books are ones that don’t have to live in a specific time, they can meet the reader whatever’s going on in their lives or in the world around them.”
He started it when he was about 17 and is now a 32-year-old digital marketing, living in Charlotte, N.C.
“It’s been about 15 years [in the writing],” he said during an interview with the Express during a visit home to see family.
What it definitely is, is a page-turner of a suspense yarn – and don’t ask, there will be no sequels to this story. Despite a suspenseful ending, he’s not planning to revisit Camp Bohr, the deep woods surrounding the fictional location in Pennsylvania, or the girls’ camp nearby.
When he began writing “In Plain Sight,” the TV show “Lost” and the film “The DaVinci Code” were both popular, and the plot twists and multiple storylines at work in both, appealed to Wirzburger.
“I never went to summer camp, believe it or not,” Wirzburger said. “But I like that idea and, looking back, I think it’s very similar to ‘Lost,’ in that the camp is like an island where it’s a controlled environment.”
If writers are told the best advice for writing is to write what you know, perhaps there are exceptions to that rule. While not having that summer camp experience for himself did present a challenge Wirzburger said creating those social interactions was fun.
“The suspense – I loved that, and I remember thinking I wanted to write something like that,” he recalls. “I kind of started outlining a story and would show a couple of friends, and it evolved a lot over the years.”
At times, he set the project aside for as much as a couple of years at a time while he was in college, studying history and communications at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H, working or just living his life in other ways. He wrote for the college paper and alumni magazine while at St. Anselm.
“Writing and history have always been two of my biggest loves, so there’s a lot ot both in there, “Wirzburger said. Each time he came back to it, the story still had its pull, even though he admits, whatever he had already written “wasn’t that good.”
“It sounded like a 17-year-old had written it, but the story was still good and I wanted to tell it, so I would start over,” Wirzburger said. Each draft still had its own technical problems, but the story itself kept getting better.
About a half-dozen years ago he took an online Masterclass.com course taught by novelist James Patterson. A commercially successful writer, Patterson taught a method of outlining that Wirzburger found the answer to what he needed.
“He talked about having everything in your outline – the plot, character arcs, if you think of bits of dialog, throw it in – and each chapter [would be outlined by] a full, meaty paragraph about what happens in that chapter,” Wirzburger said. “Then you can see all the pieces fit together.”
His outline for the 368-page book was 30 pages all by itself.
He also enjoyed writing the plot twists that keep the reader off guard.
Interweaving chapters about key characters’ origin storylines of service in Vietnam and the difficult return home, family dynamics and a police officer’s crises as all they stories merge together make for a real page-turner.
“I don’t know what it was about Vietnam specifically, or that timeline-wise it worked out,” he said. “I also like shows and stories that teach a little bit.”
Getting published was almost a story in itself, but after looking into the jungle of processes in the publishing world, he sent out 20 or 30 queries – “not that many,” he said – before deciding to self-publish.
“Lucklily, with my career, I have a background in marketing and digital marketing and I built my own website, I can do social media stuff and a little bit of graphic design, copywriting,” he said.
As for marketing the book, he has already begun plans to reach out to libraries, his college alumni and local bookstores. He has left a copy of “In Plain Sight” with the Hanson Public Library.
A book club in Hanover has also read the book and hosted Wirzburger for a Zoom-based discussion of it.
“They had such good questions, and I love talking about the character and the writing choices,” he said.
Wirzburger is currently working on the outline of his next book, a suspense story he will only say has a more adult story line as teenagers try to save the world from Russians and monsters.
“If this book is Netflix, the next one will be HBO,” he said.
Stay tuned.

HANOVER – Some change is going to come to South Shore Tech, as the school has said farewell and good fortune to Principal Mark Aubrey, as they begin the visioning process with the Massachusetts School Building Authority and project team for a renovation expansion project expected to begin in 2025.
The renovation project team is made up of a cross-section of students and parents.
“The purpose of the visioning session is akin to … a menu of options [and] the vision is where we choose the ingredients,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said during the recent School Committee meeting on Wednesday, June 14. “We talk about what we value in a school, we talk about what we value in terms of its architecture, how it responds to the community and what we need for instruction.”
The first of three such sessions was held on Tuesday, June 13. A public session will be held on Thursday, July 13. The sessions are held via Zoom virtual meeting and representatives of town governing bodies from the district’s member communities will be sent out to the July 13 session, Hickey said.
“These documents are an essential part of the beginning process for design,” he said. “It will eventually, by the end of this calendar year, lead us to narrowing down with the School Building Committee, a preferred option, and it should eventually lead to an action of this committee for something – probably in early 2025 – to go to the voters.”
Hickey said that, while there is still a long way to go with a lot of work to do on the project, he was glad to get it started with a strong response from parents and staff to get that started.
The committee approved budget transfers for three expenditures, including renovation design, a lease contract for three propane buses and vocational equipment purchases.
A stabilization transfer for $73,366 from the FY 2023 surplus revenue account for design and renovation purposes was approved.
“We scrubbed the numbers – both on the revenue said and the expense side to come up with a number as far as was there anything left in order to move money around at the end of the year,” said Treasurer James Coughlin.
A transfer of $434,760 for the lease/purchase of three new propane buses.
“With the surplus this year, we have a contract,” Coughlin said. “We can encumber the money and, by doing it now, we’re saving $45,000 in charges, so it’s a financially savvy move to pay off the lease as, pretty much a purchase of three buses.”
The district has been running propane buses for a few years now, which have proven to run cleaner, quieter and with fewer maintenance issues than diesel buses. This purchase makes the school bus fleet all propane vehicles.
The third transfer of $90,000 will fund the purchase of vocational equipment in need of replacement.
In other business, Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner reported on the end-of-the-school year activities as well as the annual summer program set to begin July 10 with 150 middle school students registered to explore nine vocational programs.
“I’m grateful to the professionalism and dedication of the school administrators, teachers and paraprofessionals who are making SST a year-round, day and night destination,” she said.
Baldner was appointed the school’s new principal effective July 1.
Aubrey, who is leaving to take a position at Blue Hills Regional, said he wanted to thank the committee – and the “brethren before you” – for the last 24 years.
“I will be gone and I wish nothing but the best for South Shore Tech,” he said. “You guys are going be a fabulous school, and I will be touring when you get that new school, because I want to see it.”
Hickey, on behalf of all the school’s graduates for Aubrey’s service, presented him with an Adirondak chair crafted by carpentry shop students, with a nameplate made by students in the manufacturing shop..
“I’m, not sure if we pulled this off or not,” he said, unveiling the chair that was hidden in the back of the room.

WHITMAN — The town’s annual Fourth of July Family Fun Day, sponsored by the Whitman Rrcreation Department, returns to Whitman Park with a day of olf-fashioned fun for the whole family on Tuesday, July 4. The Bike $ Carriage Decorating Contest, seen above during last year’s event, will begin at 10 a.m. on the basketball court. After that, residents can enjoy music, activities, relay races, inflatables and more until 1 p.m. Bring your appetite to help support Boy Scout/Pack 22, which will be cooking up hot dogs and selling other snacks to support their programs. Sweeties Shaved Ice will also be selling food.
Cap the day off with a swim, as the Town Pool will be open to residnts free of charge from 1 to 5 p.m.

HANOVER – The day after Whitman-Hanson families depended on golf umbrellas to make shade while the sun seared the school grounds, SST parents depended on the umbrellas to keep them dry – and winter coats to keep warm even as they basked in the knowledge that the weather was no harbinger of things to come.
Thanks to their hard work and the skills they had gained in the last four years, it won’t be raining on their parade as 153 members of the Class of 2023 accepted diplomas that represented a ticket to the workforce, college, further trade education or military service.
As Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey noted in his speech:
“The bottom line is that the Class of 2023 possesses what employers want: They want individuals with current technical skills and a desire to expand their skill set. They need young adults who can problem solve/troubleshoot, work on teams, demonstrate a strong work ethic, and communicate with different audiences. Does the Class of 2023 pass the test?
Absolutely—with flying colors.”
Hickey said after the ceremony that, while the temperature hovered in the 50s, with a steady breeze blowing around the school grounds, people were “in very good spirits.”
While the weather resembled that of a November football game day than a typical June graduation, families seemed to take it in stride, Hickey observed. And making good use of tents purchased for the COVID-effected graduations of the last three years, the shelters offered just that for anyone who wanted to retreat there under the precipitation.
“They made use of them. … They came dressed like New Englanders … for a rain event.” he said. “A couple of times the umbrellas popped up just for a little bit.”
There was a little concern that all those umbrellas would raise complaints about obstructed views, but those fears were unfounded.
That preparation not only workplace skills, industry recognized credentials and familiarity with workplace culture including dress codes, safety regulations and behavior, but also teamwork and troubleshooting.
“Class of 2023, you are the complete package,” he said. “Employers will be lining up to hire you! You have what it takes to be successful in the workplace and to make an impact in our communities.”
Salutatorian Ethan Mayo told his classmates they are redefining what it means to be a Viking, as well. He noted that reference books call Vikings not much more than seafaring pirates, but he sees more meaning in the word.
“At South Shore it’s a little bit different,” he said. “Through our four years we learned to persevere, problem solve, and most importantly support each other.”
Echoing Hickey’s remarks, he added, “We will definitely encounter new challenges and setbacks as we move forward. However, I believe that we have the abilities, knowledge, and fortitude to prevail. Not only have we been set up for success, but also prepared with the strength to overcome the difficulties that lie ahead.”
Valedictorian Brandon LaFleur put it another way, chalking his academic success to a fear of failing.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m your typical valedictorian,” he said. “I didn’t have the usual motivation that one would have—the pursuit of higher education and impressing colleges. … “I was afraid of failing—but for me, “failure” meant not giving my best work to something, and I couldn’t accept mediocrity. I just wanted to know that I succeeded to the extent I knew I could.”
He encouraged his classmates to reject the temptation to become comfortable with subpar work, because it can be a reflection of yourself.
“This, sadly, did not mean that I did everything right and was perfect in my ways,” he reflected. “I dropped several bulbs, scrapped many pipes after failed bends, knocked down a ceiling grid, and crashed a scissor lift into an innocent shelf. But that is the thing with trying to become good at something, as all of us here have done. We all have failed.”
Failure can, instead, be an excellent teacher.
“Mistakes are guaranteed,” LaFleur said. “Show up for yourself every day, do the best that you can, and know that each misstep is one step closer to fulfilling your potential. If you can do that, you will be fine.
Another adjustment to life’s changes had senior Ben DuFour’s step-father Jaime Pearce receiving his diploma posthumously.
“We were able to work out what I think was a well-received, but brief acknowledgement,” Hickey said, calling students up alphabetically by shop. Ben was an automotive student who died in a car-train crash and his diploma was awarded to spontaneous applause and a standing ovation at the end of Automotive before the next shop was called.
State Rep. David DeCoste, R-Hanover, attended the graduation ceremony, as did School Committee members.

In the last four years, their lives have been turned upside down by a global COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges of remote and hybrid classes and becoming accustomed to the “new normals” that went along with all that.
So, why wouldn’t the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2023 be turned on its head by threatening weather?
“Like many of you, we’ve been watching the weather very closely today,” said WHRHS Principal Dr. Christopher Jones in his welcoming remarks. “So we’re going to do something a little different, and we’re going to have our dessert before our dinner. Out of an abuncance of caution, we are going to flip the ceremony, thereby offering the graduates what they really came here for.”
The graduating class loudly cheered as Jones announced that diplomas would be awarded first, in hopes that the weather would hold out for the remainder of the program.
It did – but, just in case, there was a plan for that.
“If it rains, we will stay for the ceremony,” he said. “If it thunders, we will not.”
The plan for a dangerous storm involved having the graduates – and their parents, Jones emphasized – report to the Performing Arts Center in the high school for the ceremony’s conclusion.
New School Committee Chair Beth Stafford, a former Whitman Middle School teacher, congratulated the class on behalf of the School Committee, addressing that fact.
“I have one word that I will use tonight to describe this class, that word is adapt,” she said, noting the changes the Class of 2023 have had to face. “You adapted from elementary school to middle school, and then to the high school, but the biggest issue was what you had to do in high school. … This ability to adapt will be very important in your future endeavors.”
Whether in the workforce, higher education or the military, they will have to adapt to new situations, leaving home, following orders, bosses and more, Stafford said.
“With your past experiences, you will be able to adapt to any changes that you will face in your future,” she said.
It certainly came in handy on graduation day, as uncertainty about thuderstorms forecast for about the time the ceremony would be hitting its stride, motivated school officials to not only pushed the commencement ahead an hour, but handed the diploimas out first.
With rain holding off until well after the commencement, seniors not only enjoyed an uninterupted, if unusual, ceremony, there was more time after it for them and their families and friends to mill about the football field for photos after its conclusion and before darkness decended.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, who admitted to anxiety when having to speak before large groups, spoke to the class about his expectations, challenges and hopes for them.
“I expect you to be a good citizen, take part in your community – use your voice – remember to vote and to be a good neighbor,” he said. Manners, humility, kindness and passionate about living life to the fullest rounded out his expectations.
“I challenge you to take care of your mind and your body,” he said. “This gets really hard the older you get and the less time you have when life gets in the way.” Grace, stepping out of one’s comfort zones, thinking outside the box and listen to others regardless of viewpoint, with civility. Finally, he hopes for their success, according to each student’s definition of what that is, joy and that they believe in themselves.
Student speakers also touched on these themes [for complete texts of student speeches, see our graduation section].
For Valedictorian Noah Roberts, the journey to graduation came down to being able to answer the question: “Who are you?”
He candidly discussed the challenges and effects of mental illness and addiction on his family [see related story, page one] and the importance of caring for yourself.
“Trust me, I know that there is no such thing as a “normal” family situation, but make sure to give the ones that you see as family, whether by blood or by bond, an extra-long hug today,” Roberts said, thanking his grandmother and younger brother for their love and support.
“Nana, my entire being will be eternally grateful for the numerous sacrifices you have made for us,” he said, eliciting some tears from the woman who raised him when his mother could not. “you have always been there for me, and I genuinely don’t know where I would be without you, I love you nana. As for Cody, thank you for being my rock; through thick and thin you have stuck with me.”
He also thanked teachers and school staff who have helped him through his school years, for everything from extra help with physics to an extra chocolate pudding in the cafeteria.
He also spoke of the stress students like himself also self-impose.
“Even in high school, I felt that I was under so much pressure to be the best, because if I failed to do that, then what good was I?” he said. “I’m not sure if this mindset is true for all high school students, but what I realize now is how that mindset is not only unhealthy but is also dangerous.”
He closed by encouraging his classmates to remember to be themselves in all they do as the best way to answer is initial question: Who Are You?
Salutatarian Leah Cataldo spoke briefly about the need to relish life as it goes by in the blink of any eye, with all the changes it confronts you with, and while reminiscing is enjoyable, “our pasts are nothing compared to our futures,”
ON Hope
Classmate Brian Bouffard, winner of the annual student speech competition, advised a healthy dose of hope, while echoing Stafford’s advice on being adaptable.
“During the pandemic, so many popular activities were forced to close. Restaurants, movie theaters, and family get-togethers grinded to a halt in the face of an omnipresent, insidious disease. But we endured,” he said. “I noticed this same trend in our school, too. … We were able to recognize the necessity of these conditions, and got through it together.”
It’s been a difficult four years, but Bouffard pointed to his recollection of a “Got Hope?” poster in a middle school guidance office that still carries an important message.
“We have all learned what hope looks like: hope is perseverance. Hope is endurance. Hope is togetherness,” he said. “I have hope for all of you, class of 2023. I have hope for your futures, for your dreams. I’ve seen firsthand what all of you can do, and it’s nothing short of awe-inspiring. There’s no challenge we can’t work through. It is for this reason that I have hope. We have to have hope… because where would we be without it?”
In addition to the school’s traditional moment of silence in respect to those who have served their country in uniform, members of the graduating class who will serve and those who have given their lives in uniform, Dr. Jones also asked for a moment of silence in respect for the family of student Ava Patete, who had been killed in an incident involving an MBTA train earlier in the week.