Defining Service and Success at Chaminade 82nd Graduation

In their pst four years as students, the Chaminade High School Class of 2013 has contributed food, nursing care items, baby care supplies, volunteered with trips to New Orleans, the South Shore of Long Island after hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. On June 2 they faced their last days as underclassman, participating in the school’s 82nd commencement exercises at C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, before going onto colleges as Flyer alumni.

“Today we are especially grateful as parents, teachers and friends for the graduates of the Class of 2013,” Fr. Garett Long, S.M. said in his invocation. “Give them the spirit of understanding and bless them in the years to come... may they be for today, the sign of Your Son’s mercy, compassion and forgiveness.”

Kevin Mercadante was named the salutatorian of the Class of 2013, recalling in his speech, like others before him, the morning of May 8 when a loud noise was heard throughout the halls of the school – the sound of seniors finishing their final exams. “After four long years of blood, sweat and tears – mostly tears, this is a sensitive group of guys up here – our time as students at 340 Jackson Ave. had come to an end.”

He told the capacity crowd that when faced about what exactly to do next, he popped in his favorite childhood movie – “The Lion King” – finding that it had summed up his experience as a Flyer: “the ‘circle of life’ that is Chaminade High School never really ends; the memories we have made, the friendships we have forged and the experiences we have shared will always play a central role in our lives.”

Valedictorian Alexander Fabbri reflected on saying farewell to “the comforts of familiarity” with the saying that “everything must evolve of else it perishes” by author John Knowles: “we may not consider these our best or most important years; surely it is easy to imagine more significant times for ourselves, but a future that we build for ourselves will rest on the foundations that Chaminade has provided for us.”

All the members of the senior class applied to and were accepted into colleges, though 397 are planning on attending. The class earned a combined 1,305 scholarships, five of them athletic, the remainder academic. Three members plan on attending United States Service academies. Two students were National Merit Scholarship winners while 23 were named as commended students.

Principal Bro. Joseph Bellizzi, S.M. asked the students to identify for themselves what they considered to be the measure of success, whether it be status, popularity, effort, obstacles overcome, happiness, character, college acceptances or something else.

“Does your definition include family, friends and faith?” he asked. “While all of these things in part of a measure of success, I would like to offer you yet one another, one that the Chaminade man can live by; I offer you the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: ‘in the end, three things remain: faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.’ For the past four years in the midst of your academics, athletics and activities you have been learning and practicing this measure of success.”

Following the distribution of the 399 diplomas and academic awards, the customary bestowment of several of the major trophies and awards – most notably the Chaminade Man award, given to the senior whom best embodies the ideals of the school’s namesake, Fr. William Joseph Chaminade – were held, with this year’s recipient being Mercadante, whose father had also received the award when he was a student at the school.

Stating that the bestowment upon the Garden City native was noteworthy due to his “diversity” of interests school president Bro. Thomas Cleary, S.M. listed Mercadante’s involvement in science olympiad, golf, soccer, parish religious education and yearbook “he guides and encourages others with his trademark, competent leadership, sharing his talents with the larger Chaminade community whether it be at a volunteer service project as a senior leader or on the soccer team, he is always mindful of the call to serve.”