By DARRYL MELLEMA, Associate Editor, Moose Magazine

Graduation at Mooseheart means much, much more than simply leaving behind a high school and a set of friends.

When they receive their diplomas and vocational certificates, Mooseheart graduates are preparing to leave their homes. No matter what they do after graduation, the Child City will always be a place to visit, not to live for the rest of their collective lives.

So tears flowed at Mooseheart's May 26 graduation. There were certainly tears of happiness but there were also tears of sadness - tears that come when you are about to move to the next phase in life.

And as they prepared to take their first steps outside the Child City campus, the Class of 2007 received some final words of advice.

Some of those words came from Mooseheart Executive Director Scott Hart.

"To the graduates, I say, reach for your dreams," Hart said. "Stay focused. We've talked before about surrounding yourself with people who are going to build you up and casting off those people who are going to bring you down. Everyone in this room believes you can do great things."

Class Salutatorian Melissa Quitoriano was the next to speak. She was a self-confessed "newbie" to the class, arriving two years before graduation.

"When I first came to Mooseheart, it was nerve-wracking," Quitoriano said. "Just as nerve-wracking as it is to stand here and make a speech in front of everyone today."

But Quitoriano said she was accepted from the first day she arrived on campus. And that feeling extended beyond the class members and assembled staff at the graduation ceremony.

"Even though I may not know everyone out there in the audience today, I know that because you are a part of the Mooseheart family, I can trust each and every one of you. And I must say, it is very comforting to know that I have such a large support group as I go out into the world."

Perhaps the most poignant words of the morning came from a member of that support group -- Mark Penzkover, who delivered the main commencement address. The Valedictorian of the Class of 1984, Penzkover spent time in his speech addressing the graduates as "a much older brother."

Read the full text of Penzkover's Commencement Address

Penzkover said he remembered his mixed emotions from his own graduation from the home at which he lived for 15 years.

"I remember about halfway through the ceremony, it finally hit me that I was leaving the home I'd ever known," Penzkover said. "Would I be able to live up to everyone's expectations? Could I be successful entering a strange world without my support network?"

Penzkover found ways to succeed. Holding both bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering as well as an MBA, Penzkover is now a senior engineer and project manager with Elm Consulting, LLC, a Milwaukee-based engineering firm. He is also a member of the Mooseheart Board of Directors.

In his remarks, Penzkover reminded the graduating class that receipt of their diploma and vocational certificate was an ending but also a beginning.

"Nobody knows what lies ahead for you, but I can say with some certainty that the next few years are going to be filled with changes and challenges," Penzkover said. "How you respond to your individual changes and challenges will ultimately determine who you are."

The first thing Penzkover advised the graduates was to set aside their achievements at the Child City - not because they aren't important - but because the things he is most proud of today "are my intangible accomplishments that cannot be captured with an aware or displayed with a trophy."

Among these, Penzkover said, are parenthood, success in business, community involvement and membership and service to the Moose and Mooseheart.

In moving from Mooseheart to the "real world" outside the Child City, Penzkover said the 2007 graduating class would encounter "bumps and obstacles." He gave some practical advice for working beyond those hindrances.

"During my first year of college, there were times that I just wanted to quit and do just about anything else," Penzkover said. "That would have been the easy thing to do.

"But that was not how I was raised. And it was not how you were raised," Penzkover admonished.

He said he reached to the sizeable Mooseheart family in times of stress or strife.

"I never would have made it through that stretch of life without asking for help," Penzkover said. "So in the next few years when you hit rough and stormy waters, remember that you don't - and you shouldn't - have to navigate those waters alone."

The words "Enter to learn, learn to serve" are more than a phrase carved into the Mooseheart entrance on Illinois Route 31, Penzkover said. He said there will come a time for each graduate when there will be an opportunity to serve, and that is part of the Mooseheart legacy too.

"There is no minimum time frame or level of service," Penzkover said. "All that is expected of you as Mooseheart graduates is that, at the appropriate time in your lives, you devote some of your time to service and help improve this world a little."

Class Valedictorian Stephen Tezanos-Pinto reminded the Class of 2007 that, "we have shared this immense bond with each other. In the beginning, we wouldn't call each other brother and sister. Now that's how we refer to one another."

Tezanos-Pinto mentioned something positive about each of the other 18 graduates, saving words for twin sister Adrianna for the end.

With their diplomas and vocational certificates in hand, all that remained was for the class to toss their caps into the air and proclaim themselves graduated - which they did with gusto.

Members of the Mooseheart Class of 2007, in alphabetical order, with their sponsoring Lodges, are:

Jasmin Barnes, Indianapolis, IN Lodge 17
Tori Bates, Lombard, IL Lodge 2350
Tomisha Bennett, Fort Wayne, IN Lodge 200
Jasmine Costa-Hernandez, Elgin, IL Lodge 799
Dustin Cox, Lebanon, IN, Lodge 1269
Rachelle Cross, Batavia, IL Lodge 682
Susan Crow, Chicago, IL Southwest Lodge 44
Arturo Fernandez, Chicago IL Southwest Lodge 44
Christopher Fitzgerald, Batavia, IL Lodge 682
J. Nicolas Grasty, Hillsborough, NC Lodge 1893
Andrew Howard, General Assembly Lodge 3000
Renee James, Chicago, IL Southwest Lodge 44
Tara Janssen, Elgin, IL Lodge 799
Katherine Morones, Chicago Heights, IL Lodge 828
Robert Picker, Willow Glen, CA Lodge 2255
Melissa Quitoriano, Fairfield, CA Lodge 861
Adrianna Tezanos-Pinto, South Sacramento, CA Lodge 255
Stephen Tezanos-Pinto, South Sacramento, CA Lodge 255
Anthony Westbrook, Chicago, IL Southwest Lodge 44