Sentimental Gifts Mark OAA Graduation Farewells

GENTRY, ARK. – He had floppy black ears and a jet-black tail. Where a stuffed puppy would normally have fur, this one had white fabric made specifically for autographs and bold letters proudly boasting “Class of 2025”.

Most people in the Gentry Seventh-day Adventist Church that Friday evening in May probably didn’t notice as Emma Waggoner, dressed in her blue graduation gown, quietly slipped the puppy beneath her seat before Ozark Adventist Academy’s (OAA) first graduation program to close out the 2024-2025 school year. But there he sat, beneath Emma’s chair, sporting his own pint-sized graduation hat and stubby yellow tassel. He sat quietly through the music, the slideshows and the steady disappearance of long-stemmed roses from the five decorative buckets at the front of the church.

It was then that Waggoner reached beneath her seat and brought out the commemorative dog—now covered in signatures and scribbles from the Class of 2025—and presented him to Beth Zeiss, OAA’s new principal. Beth, who had no idea the little stuffed dog had been hiding under Emma’s chair, later said it was something she would always treasure because of the heartfelt thought behind it.

Moments like these filled OAA’s graduation weekend this year. It wasn’t just a series of speeches and ceremonies. It was also the small, meaningful gestures—little goodbyes wrapped in love. Little gifts that indicated these friendships mattered and would be remembered, even as classmates parted ways.

In the midst of these gentle goodbyes were gifts hand-drawn by graduate Lauren Alburo—sketches of friends from the graduating class, each one thoughtfully framed and wrapped in crinkling paper. As graduate Rachael Muendo gently slid her gift, a paper reflection of herself, from its wrapping, those standing around her could probably hear her audible gasp. And as the paper fell from Waggoner’s portrait, the flicker of emotion in her eyes said everything.

Like the little puppy tucked beneath a chair, it wasn’t the gift itself that moved them—it was the thought behind it. It was the care Lauren had put into each drawing. And it was the quiet memories each sketch seemed to carry—memories more deeply ingrained in the heart than those signatures written in permanent marker on the fabric of that black-and-white puppy’s paw.

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By Debbie Upson

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