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Belvidere South Middle School promotes eighth-grade class, presents community awards and honor-roll recognitions
Summary
Belvidere South Middle School held an eighth-grade promotion ceremony at Mel Brown Gymnasium. School leaders and community partners presented awards from the VFW, Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Legion, and the school recognized attendance and honor-roll achievements, including multiple students with perfect GPAs.
Belvidere South Middle School announced the promotion of its eighth-grade class at a ceremony in Mel Brown Gymnasium; the event also included awards from community organizations and recognition of students who met attendance and honor-roll benchmarks. The ceremony organizer and principal, Ben Kamara, welcomed families and students and introduced award presentations and the distribution of promotion certificates.
The ceremony featured awards from three community groups: the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the Asa Cottrell chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and the American Legion. Commander Bland of the VFW presented three awards covering music excellence, academic excellence and youth citizenship; recipients named in the ceremony were Nayana Gonzales (music excellence), Alex Beltran (academic excellence), and Lucy McDonough and Amora Brown (youth citizenship). Patricia Cox of the DAR presented the chapter’s outstanding American history award to Charlotte Kilbarger. Commander Koonewald of the American Legion presented two awards for character, scholarship, leadership and service to Melanie Espinosa Zamiran and Juan Urbietta Valdez.
Kamara, the school principal, said the ceremony "will highlight some of the many accomplishments of South Middle School's eighth grade students," and reminded students that promotion is "just the beginning of the next important chapter." He encouraged students to stay engaged in high school activities and academics as they prepare for graduation in four years.
School leaders also used the ceremony to announce academic and attendance recognitions. The school presented attendance awards to students who had attendance rates of 93% or higher. Honor-roll distinctions were announced in three tiers: honor roll (GPA 3.0–3.49), high honor roll/presidential award (GPA 3.5–3.99) and highest honor roll/presidential award (GPA 4.0). The ceremony listed many students by name across those tiers and recognized students involved in programs including band, chorus, PLTW (Project Lead The Way) tracks and National Junior Honor Society.
Event logistics included a last-minute shortage of some envelopes distributed with certificates. Staff told families the school would photograph any students who did not receive an envelope and mail the missing materials to families afterward.
Belvidere High School principal Mr. Lewis joined school administrators — assistant principals Repka and Ransby and Dean of Students Miss Laredo — to present promotion certificates. The ceremony closed with Kamara congratulating the class and wishing students an "outstanding summer."
