RVHS seniors march through elementary schools, present gifts to kindergarteners
Liz Porteus is pictured with the Conesville kindergarten student that she gave a copy of Dr. Seuss’ book “Oh, the places you’ll go” to. Porteus is a senior at River View High School and presenting copies of the book to the district’s kindergarteners was part of her senior project. Josie Sellers | Beacon
CONESVILLE – River View High School seniors celebrated their upcoming graduation by marching through the halls of their former elementary schools on May 17.
“Our job is to give these seniors a parade,” said Conesville Elementary School Principal Joel Moore. “We want our little kids to see how special the big ones are and the big ones to see again where it all started.”
When the students arrived, Moore welcomed them back before handing them over to teacher Kyle Jones who played the drum while the students followed them and marched around the school.
“Welcome home Conesville students,” Moore said. “There are a lot of little faces inside that are going to be looking up to you guys.”
After marching through the school the students gathered in the gym for a group picture. They also sang Jones the song he taught them for their final talent show and then they moved on to the kindergarten classrooms to present a special gift to each student.
“These students went to the same school you did and were in the same classrooms, but they are all grown up now,” Moore said to the kindergarten students. “They are going to go to college, get jobs and do all kinds of adult things. They want you guys to be able to do the same things.”
The seniors encouraged the kindergarten students to keep pushing forward with their education by presenting them each with a copy of Dr. Seuss’ book “Oh, the places you’ll go.”
The books were paid for by River View’s senior class and passing them out to the district’s kindergarteners was part of Liz Porteus’ senior class project. She came up with doing the idea after seeing a post on Twitter about another school doing the project.
“I’ve been back in the elementary schools, but a lot of students don’t come back after sixth grade,” Porteus said. “It’s nice to see the little kids because they look up to us and we are like role models to them.”
Members of River View’s senior class signed the inside back of the book and each book had a message from a senior on the inside front cover. Porteus also wrote a note that was attached to the books that encouraged the students to get their teacher’s signature on their book each year.
“It was definitely emotional doing this today,” Proteus said. “I have so many memories from Conesville. It was exciting being here and especially nice seeing Mrs. Bigrigg here today. She taught at Conesville when we were here. She switched to Keene but came today to see us.
It also was an emotional day for some of the teachers at Conesville.
“I was in my third or fourth year teaching when I had them in kindergarten,” said Michelle Beitzel, one of two kindergarten teachers at Conesville. “They are an awesome group of kids. I was super excited when I saw them walk in my classroom. It was wonderful to see them back as a group.”
Porteus is hoping this project can become a tradition for River View High School.
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