Name: Hannah Guard, valedictorian, ORR Class of 2017

Age: 18

How she came to Tri-Town: Lifelong resident of Marion

Favorite place: “I like going to Silvershell Beach, we keep our boat at Barden’s Boat Yard – and I love Captain Barney’s in Marion.”

Ever seen a celebrity locally? “Not in Tri-Town, but a few weekends ago, I was in a store and I saw (actors) John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. I let them do their thing, I didn’t bother them.”

By Jonathan Comey

When Hannah Guard found out she was valedictorian of Old Rochester Regional High School this past spring, it was only a few days before graduation.

She was thrilled, because hey, everyone loves being No. 1, right?

“I wouldn’t say freshman year I went in with that goal, but after my junior year, I found out I was top in the class, so it was in the back of my mind to reach,” she said.

But she also had to come up with a speech – the speech every valedictorian gives, the words that are supposed to inspire her classmates and sum up the experience.

No pressure.

With public speaking not exactly in her comfort zone, she did just what she did to become valedictorian in the first place: she worked at it.

“Well I never considered myself the smartest person at ORR. There were so many people that were so intelligent,” she said. “But I guess my work ethic was what got me there.”

At ORR, she was a two-sport athlete and high academic achiever whose life was full, to say the least. Up at the crack of dawn for a full day of the school’s most difficult courses, and then sports after school (field hockey and softball). Then home, dinner, shower, and homework from 6:30 to “Ten, eleven, sometimes twelve.” Then do it again.

“My parents never really pushed me toward, ‘Hey, you have to get to work.’ I think it was just in me,” Hannah said. “I always have worked hard.”

The majority of her speech, which she worked closely on with National Honor Society advisor Sarabeth Morrell, centered on the challenges and triumphs of the fictional Disney heroine Mulan. The conclusion was that, like Mulan discovered, it was all about finding a path and taking it with your full heart – but if that path became blocked, to find a way to make success on whatever new path you landed on.

And, of course, she made her parents Tom and Michelle (who didn’t get an advance copy) a little teary-eyed, watching their daughter conclude with a Dr. Seuss quote that they introduced her to as a little girl: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.”

When deciding where to go next in life, Guard certainly had many options at her disposal. With an impeccable academic record, she was left with a simpler question than some: What do I want?

And in the end, she decided that what she wanted was to be in an atmosphere similar to the one that nurtured her and inspired her living here.

“I think the community and the people around, having grown up here, everyone helps each other,” she said. “It’s not too busy – I like that. When I was looking at schools in the city, there was a lot going on – a little too much.”

And so she chose UMass Amherst where she plans on majoring in biochemical engineering, with the goal of becoming a medical researcher.

Her experiences in the biology and chemistry tracks at ORR inspired her (shout out to Mrs. Graser), and she’s ready to get deeper at the college level.

She leaves in around three weeks to live in the school’s new dorms for honors program students. She’s already been texting and Snapchatting with her new roommate, and she is confident that she’ll be able to find there what she has now: a great sense of being part of a team.

“UMass is a big school, but it’s not in a city. You know when you’re on campus that you’re there,” she said.

Is she nervous? “If I’m honest, yes. Not about the school work, maybe, but about moving there, being in a new atmosphere.”

Guard is not exactly sure what the challenges will be, but she is confident she’ll solve them.

“I like to be challenged, although it’s not always easy. In my junior year, my AP History teacher, Mr. Carroll was very challenging,” she said. “Over the weekend, it was always a 40-page chapter, then a pop quiz on Monday. We knew it was coming, but he always changed the format. It was hard, there were a lot of things to remember, but I like that he challenged us.

“I always felt well prepared.”

The Town of Rochester on Sunday, August 6, officially acknowledged the planting of a gingko biloba sapling gifted to the town by its former Town Administrator Michael McCue – a rare gift that not many other cities or towns in this part of the world possess.

This special baby tree was born of an international effort to spread the seeds of peace across the globe. Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative, a joint initiative with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), propagates and disperses the saplings from many of the 170 trees in 55 locations within about one-and-a-quarter miles of ground zero of the Hiroshima atomic blast on August 6, 1645 – “Hibaku-jumoku,” which means “survivor trees.”

The ginkgo sapling was planted during the last weekend of June at the Dexter Lane Ball Field in the far end behind the playground by Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge, who also placed a plaque commemorating McCue’s gift and its historical significance.

This particular sapling was grown from a 250-year-old survivor tree that was only 1,370 meters from the atomic blast.

Matthew Monteiro of the Rochester Historic District Commission, who took on the Arbor Day responsibilities from McCue after he resigned from his position, led a brief ceremony before a handful of people to celebrate the Town’s participation in Arbor Day and also acknowledged the 72^nd anniversary of the nuclear bombing.

“I want to thank Green Legacy Hiroshima for this gift to our town and recognize Michael McCue who sought out the opportunity on our town’s behalf,” said Monteiro. “Seventy-two years ago today on August 6, 1945, a nine-thousand pound atomic bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima.”

Nearly the entire city was destroyed and 80,000 people died instantly, and thousands would later die as a result of the bombing.

“Most of the trees and other vegetation were destroyed,” said Monteiro, “so in 1951, the first president of Hiroshima University, Tatsuo Morito, sent a letter to universities in Europe, the U.S., and Asia asking to be sent tree seeds and seedlings to replant their campus.”

Monteiro said, quoting Morito, “Green is the color of vividness, the color of hope, the color of peace.”

The response was great, said Monteiro, and the grounds once burned by an atomic blast were replanted.

Monteiro continued recounting the history of Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative and its formation in 2011 by former Director of the Hiroshima Office of the UNITAR Nassrine Azimi.

“We are grateful to recognize the value of trees along with the Arbor Day Foundation,” said Monteiro, “not only as physical comforts that provide cool shade and beauty, but as Ms. Azimi said, ‘While silently testifying to the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, they also tell us of the importance of resilience, tolerance, and living in harmony with nature.’”

Fellow member of the Historic District Commission Laurene Gerrior thanked those in attendance, which included Selectman Greenwood Hartley, for celebrating with them the planting of the tree.

“This ginkgo joins a long line of memorial trees, including the forty-plus trees planted in various locations by the Green Ways Committee,” said Gerrior. These trees include the male and female ginkgo at the waterworks, the mulberry at the grange, a memorial to a local serviceman killed in WWII, Linc Rounseville’s beech tree in his corn field, Gerrior said, and a 12-foot-wide white oak off Alley Road that won the Big Tree contest back in the ‘90s.

“May this tree be remembered and join this illustrious group of trees here in Rochester,” said Gerrior.

Monteiro shared information about the surviving mother tree of Rochester’s sapling located in Shukkeien Garden and provided a photo. The mother tree still stands slanted toward the hypocenter, with its trunk 4 meters wide and 17 meters tall.

By Jean Perry