Staff Writer
The Class of 2011 at Caribou High School presented itself collectively marching into the Performing Arts Center, to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance,” prior to the annual Junior Exhibition, on March 24.

Class Marshals, officers and advisors from the Caribou High School Class of 2011 gathered for a photo prior to the school’s annual Junior Exhibition which took place on March 24.In front, from left are: Kayla Collins, class secretary; Lydia Kieffer and Adam Chartier, class marshals. In back are Lisa Collins, Class of 2011 adviser; Ezra Duplissie Cyr, treasurer; Ethan Stetson, president; Cole Sirois, vice president and Sherrill Campbell, 2011 class adviser.
As the students entered the auditorium, led by 2011 Class Marshals Lydia Kieffer and Adam Chartier, some eyes searched for family members, some concentrated on keeping in step with their partners while others sought approval from the face of CHS teacher, Kenneth Atcheson, who annually takes on the responsibility of teaching proper marching etiquette.
Ethan Stetson, 2011 class president, welcomed the audience and introduced the evening’s student mistress and master of ceremonies, Elizabeth Keaton and Adam Chartier. Keaton and Chartier proceeded to introduce the Jr. Exhibition speakers for 2010.
Ezra Duplissie Cyr , the first speaker for the evening, presented George Carlin’s “Baseball vs. Football,” monologue. With a table full of sporting props, Duplissie Cyr ventured into the complicated (and often contradicting) description of terms used in the world of sports.
During the well delivered speech audience members learned that baseball is considered pastoral, i.e. beginning in the spring, the season of new life, while football can be looked upon as more technical, starting in the fall with more dynamics. While baseball players wear caps, football players wear helmets; and while if it rains, baseball players don’t go out and play; football is played in any type of weather; and of course in baseball there is the 7th inning stretch, but in football there is only the two-minute warning.
Duplissie Cyr was coached by CHS faculty member Kenneth Atcheson.
Stepping to the stage following the lesson in sports was Alyson Michaud who presented “The Fire Drill,” by Anonymous. Michaud, portrayed within her speech a high school student explaining — or trying to figure out — why schools have fire drills and how seriously they are taken by the staff but perhaps not by some students.
Michaud humorously described how some things are important even if one is making their way out of a building. Things such as, going back to get a purse from the locker(never go anywhere without a purse, it usually has one’s life contained in it); trying to decide if the rule is to open the windows or close them might result in leaving them “just slightly ajar” — covering both bases; anxiously awaiting to meet up with that BFF to hear the latest gossip about “that special boy,” and after finally exiting the building, wondering why the principal is so upset about achieving a time for the drill of 10 minutes and 53 seconds.
Michaud was coached for her Jr. Exhibition presentation by CHS staff member Barbara Souther.
Kyle McEwen presented a self-composed speech, “Cheerleading: My Journey.” Through the deliverance of this oratory McEwen traced his journey from junior high cheerleading to the CHS varsity squad, including the nervous tryouts, the successes (and those not so successful) in competitions, featuring one problematic event when regardless of the problems that presented themselves, their flyer (squad members who get tossed into the air) somehow always knew how to stay in the air, regardless of what was going on on the floor.
McEwen was coached by Atcheson.
Following a brief intermission, Hannah Homes and Celeste Johnson, coached by CHS faculty member Cherie Black, presented, “Green Eggs and Ham,” by Dr. Seuss.
The junior duo never missed a beat as they carried on the convincing sing-song chatter between “Sam, I am” and his friend. With Sam, I am, questioning would “you like green eggs and ham in a boat? In a car? etc. the reply was always the same, “I do not like green eggs and ham, and I would not like them in a boat or in a car,” etc. The popular children’s rhyming words of Dr. Seuss, captured the audience as Johnson and Holmes presented the story in a most entertaining way.
Every so often during the annual Junior Exhibition event, there appears a student who has chosen a more serious or dramatic presentation and over the years there have been any number of very memorable offerings, including the year one speaker chose the closing argument from John Grisham’s book, “A Time to Kill,” a speech done so completely in character of the attorney that when the last words, charging the jury, the lights in CPAC went entirely dark — no one said a word for at least a full minute.
Another favorite and impressive delivery a few years ago was when a junior spoke, Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Raven.”
This year, Robert Kiehn, coached by CHS faculty member Alana Margeson, followed in this tradition, speaking an impressive, dramatic recitation of Poe’s “The Raven,” keeping his classmates, the audience and faculty in rapt attention throughout. Kiehn’s presence coupled with his passion for the stage and his clear voice filled with conviction, “twas wonderful and nothing more.”
Taylor Arey and Devon Cote, as the final speakers for the evening, returned the humor to the stage as they presented, “Who’s on First?” by Abbott and Costello. The simple question, “Who’s on first?” becomes a complicated conversation between Arey and Cote, as they try to sort out the names of the baseball players and their positions. The two classmates, kept the conversation going, never missing a word, even as frustrated as they got with each other, trying to make the other understand what they needed the answer to. Cote’s straight arrow responses to Arey’s growing exasperation brought continuous laughs from their audience as they tried to sort things out.
Cote and Arey were coached by Daniel Fishman of the CHS faculty.
Following the presentation from the six Junior Exhibition speakers, Mark Jones, principal at Caribou High School, spoke briefly prior to awarding the speaker’s their medals. Jones reminded the Class of 2011 that it really hadn’t been that long ago when they entered school as elementary students, climbing aboard the big yellow school bus, clutching their Barbie Doll and Sponge Bob lunchboxes. Then as freshmen they had reached their final destination at the high school (while unsuccessfully trying to open their lockers). Jones commented on how much the students had matured and grown through the past years and wished them luck as they travel through more twists and turns prior to their graduation.
Prior to the recessional, the CHS Class of 2011, sang their class song, “The Middle.”
A reception for the class members and their families was held immediately following the recessional.
Officers for the Class of 2011 are: Ethan Stetson, president; Cole Sirois, vice president; Ezra Duplessie Cyr, treasurer; and Kayla Collins, secretary.