CDD Graduation Ceremony 12-15-09

CDD Graduation Event Wrap Up

Session Beginning Date: November 10th 2009
Graduation Date: December 15th 2009
Location: Santa Monica Recreational Center
1450 Ocean Avenue Santa Monica, CA 90401
Time: 7:00 to 9:00pm
Emcee: Erick
Guest Speaker: Duane Kofield

Our graduation ceremony began at 7:00 pm at the Santa Monica Recreational Center with over a hundred people in attendance. The evening’s emcee and current CDD Instructor, Erick, kicked off the ceremony with a few opening words and an overview of the evening. He congratulated the graduates and wished them all continued success. CDD Director, Kathleen Patton, then took the podium to talk about CDD’s mission and its impact and importance in the community.

Ms. Patton then conducted the annual CDD Awards Ceremony in which CDD honors volunteers who have shown exceptional dedication and devotion to our students over the past year. Shahab Inamdar was awarded CDD Volunteer of the Year for his tireless work as web team lead in maintaining the CDD website. Special Volunteer awards were handed out to Derin Oyekan, Katy Porter, and Chris Tyler. Derin was honored for his dedication to the organization as an instructor for the past three years, teaching and graduating dozens of the underprivileged at the Walden House. Katy was honored for her work as a motivational speaker and general supporter to CDD for the past three years. She has spoken at a number of graduation ceremonies and has offered consultation to CDD. Chris was honored for his work on the install team over the past two years as well as for arranging for his company to donate dozens of computers to CDD. Each shared a few words with the audience after receiving their City Certificates signed by the Mayor.

Motivational speaker, Duane Cofield, then delivered the ceremony’s keynote speech. Duane engaged the audience with his own story of how he turned his life around. He spoke about how he grew up being obnoxious and careless. He had been in a great deal of trouble in his youth leading to his being imprisoned. While in prison, Duane, with the help of his mentor and by doing a lot of reading, realized that he can change his life by investing his energy on positive rather than negative goals. He now travels around giving motivational speeches to those with similar backgrounds trying to help them get their lives back in track.

The audience showed their approval for all of the speakers with a loud round of applause. It was then time for the Student Presentations. One student is chosen from each house to read the essay they wrote during the course. The first student speaker was Stacey Ward from the House of Uhuru, then Denise Howe from Cri-Help, and last was James Sykes from Walden House. Each talked about their past experiences and the steps they were taking to achieve a more positive lifestyle. They all acknowledged that computers skills were important in helping them become successful and recognized CDD’s role in getting them started. Stacey and Denise both delivered emotional speeches about how they plan to turn their lives around. James concluded by motivating his fellow students to change their lives for the better, which earned him a huge ovation.

Suddenly there was a stir at the back of the room. Who would appear than non other than Santa Claus himself who looked jolly indeed! Old St. Nick shouted Merry Christmas as he strode to the front of the room with cheers in return from the crowd. Santa explained that he had heard there were some very good boys and girls in the room tonight and he had to stop in to sing a carol. Santa then brought out his accordion! He knew Santa played the accordion? Well, he does and he played Jingle Bells, beautifully while everyone sang along with great joy. That was sure nice of old Mr. Claus to take the time out of his busy schedule to share that treat and it will remain in our memories.

We closed the evening with the Walden House Ladies Choir sharing some beautiful harmonies and then, the big finale, awarding the certificates to the graduates. Each graduate was called to receive his or her certificate and was congratulated with handshakes from CDD and Staff Members. We all then shared laughs, hugs along with cake and refreshments, to bring to close the final session of 2009. What a special event and a wonderful way to end the year