On Wednesday, May 1st, Mercy High School had their annual May Crowning in celebration of the Virgin Mary. May Crowning is a wonderful tradition at Mercy that all anticipate and look forward to attending. At Mercy, each grade level elects two girls from their grade to represent their class. The seniors choose a total of three girls, two to be representatives and one to be May Queen. This year the freshmen were honored to be represented by Mabry Lehan and Lucy Gerken. The sophomores selected Shania Alveres Hurtando and Anna Katherine (AK) Verdoni. Juniors chose to be represented by Ellah Hoge and Kate Beran. The seniors chose to be represented by Aly Daniels and Molly Pensick. Kaylee Epp was chosen to be the May Queen.
The ceremony starts with freshmen, sophomores and juniors processing in singing the “Immaculate Mary” on the way to their seats. As soon as the girls are standing at their seats they begin to sing “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman” as the seniors walk down the bleachers making their first appearance in their graduation caps and gowns. Once every girl is standing in front of a seat, the May Court walks in and the crowns for Mary and the May Queen are blessed by Father Mike Eckley. Kaylee’s crown is then placed on her head and Kaylee then places a crown of flowers on Mary.
The job of May Queen is important because she crowns the Virgin Mary as the Queen of May after the students process in followed by the seniors in their graduation attire. The May Queen is someone that the girls admire for her faith and kindness towards others. As the ceremony went on, the May Queen, Kaylee Epp, gave a speech on when she felt most connected and followed Mary. Kaylee shared her experience that brought her to follow in Mary’s footsteps and just say yes in a time of hardship. After the conclusion of her speech the senior ensemble gathered to sing the Ava Maria lead by the music teacher, Mrs. Noronha.
May is the month of Mary and we honor her as the Mother of God and for her devotion to her faith. As a school each grade led a decade of the rosary. The class representatives started each decade by reading the Glorious Mystery associated with it before requesting their fellow classmates to stand and recite a decade of the Rosary. The reading of the Rosary was completed by the May Queen and teachers recited the fifth decade. Once the Rosary was completed, Mrs. Wessling presented the Outstanding Senior Awards to Landry Lehan and Kaylee Epp. The decision was made by their class by choosing who showed the most care and compassion for others in addition to a desire to help others. Then the seniors sang the “Suscipe of Catherine McAuley” for an almost final time before they sing it at their graduation.
Once the ceremony was done, all of the girls processed out to their meeting locations before returning to class for the rest of the day and being dismissed at three o’clock.
