MISQUAH — Lakeside High School graduated its Class of 2026 on Friday evening, sending thirty-eight seniors across the gymnasium stage in green and gold before a crowd that filled the bleachers and spilled into the hallway by the trophy case.

The ceremony began at 7 p.m. and ran somewhat past nine, with the customary processional, three speeches, the conferring of diplomas, and the reading of every graduate’s name — to applause that, for several students, extended into a second and third round.

Valedictorian Maddie Ouellette, bound for the University of Minnesota in the fall, thanked her parents, her teachers, and Gary Solberg, who has driven the Route 3 bus for twenty-two years. “He never once left anybody behind,” Ouellette said, “even Tyler.” Tyler Aas, seated in the third row, took it in good humor, as did the gymnasium.

Principal Dean Norquist offered the graduates both a send-off and a standing invitation. “The door at Lakeside is always open to you,” he said, “partly because we mean it, and partly because the lock on the east entrance has been broken since March and the part is on order.”

Salutatorian Ben Aune spoke briefly on the subject of small towns, concluding that “you can leave Misquah, and a lot of us will, but Misquah doesn’t entirely leave you — which you find out around February, in whatever city you’ve ended up in.”

Of the thirty-eight graduates, the school reported that twenty-six plan to attend a two- or four-year college, six to enter the workforce or the trades, three to enlist, and the remainder to, in the words of one, “figure it out, probably up here.” A reception followed in the basement, with coffee, bars, and sheet cake, as it has at every Lakeside graduation in living memory. The Pike, Norquist reminded the crowd, remain the Pike.