This year’s Mathews High School valedictorian related the important life lesson of leaving the world a better place than you found it while the salutatorian, a long-distance runner, equated her four years of high school to the legs of a race during Saturday’s commencement exercises.

Ninety MHS seniors received their diplomas during the morning’s graduation ceremony. Family and friends packed the school’s Harry M. Ward Auditorium to share in the graduates’ joy and celebrate their accomplishments. Those without tickets watched the ceremony on closed-circuit television in the gymnasium.

At the start of the program, class president Anne Stewart welcomed everyone and announced this year’s senior class gift to MHS—a water bottle filling station that will provide filtered water to the students and staff.

Salutatorian

Assistant principal Lee Anne Bray introduced this year’s salutatorian Reilly Price, who will be attending the University of Vi...