They were supposed to be the last graduating class of the Villa Augustina. Instead, the 19 eighth-graders who received their diplomas on Sunday, June 15, seemed destined for a less historic yet far happier honor – they are graduates of a school founded by the Religious of Jesus and Mary 90 years ago, an institution that has been and almost certainly will continue to be an icon of Catholic education in the greater Manchester community.

“Great comebacks can happen,” said Gary Bouchard, the graduation speaker. “And you know what? It’s not always in the distant world of professional sports or in the movies.”

Soon after news broke that the school was on the brink of closing, Principal Jack Daniels asked Bouchard, an English professor at Saint Anselm College, to speak at graduation. “My immediate thought was, ‘I’m going to be giving a eulogy. I don’t want to do that,’” Bouchard recalled.

Bouchard, whose two sons attended the school, had also been tapped by Daniels to recruit parents for a last-ditch effort to save the school. For the next six months, Bouchard worked hard, determined not to be the last graduation speaker. Behind the scenes, he organized the Villa Augustina Leadership Transition Team, or VALTT – a name he coined.

As the name suggests, the team has handled the transition from a school affiliated with a religious order to one run by laymen, mainly the parents themselves. Bouchard also was very much out in the open, serving as the public spokesman to the media.

Yesterday, Bouchard reminded eighth-graders how far their school had come.

“You may remember, and I hope that you do, that in December of this past year, it was decided that you, the Class of 2008, would be the last class to ever graduate from the Villa Augustina,” he said.

Bouchard told students they had learned a lesson: that miracles do happen, if you have faith and match that faith with work. “You and I have witnessed a miracle in our midst,” he continued. “And in that, you were taught a lesson more valuable than anything anyone could ever teach you in a classroom. You were taught to believe.” Daniels said the eighth-grade class had bonded this year as the fate of their school hung in the balance. Their parents’ enduring faith in the school’s future had made an impression on the students, according to Daniels.

“That’s a lesson you will take with you,” he said. “If I truly give myself to something, even when the odds are against me, it can be accomplished.”

At the end of graduation, which took place at the Saint Anselm College abbey, students sang a medley of pop songs, including “Livin’ on a Prayer,” by Bon Jovi.

The following are the 2008 graduates: Joseph Anderson, Emily Barrett, Graham Beaudoin, Amy Bouchard, Daniel Ciruzzi, Chantel deRochemont, Aidan Donovan, Taylor Giarmmarino, Eric Hambleton, Elaina Lavigne, Perri Maliska, Kiersten Photiades, Abigail Piergross, Grace Pope, Katy Richardson, Tyler Sweetser, Kyra Thiel, Maria Turner and Anastasia Yogas.

“They really were a fun-loving, high-spirited class, with creativity,” Daniels said.

The class almost attained another distinction – of being the first class to graduate after the religious order that shaped the school for nearly a century turned it over to parents. Their graduation was weeks away from the scheduled closing date of the sale of the Villa Augustina School. “We’re getting close to the finish line,” Bouchard said, “which is also the beginning of a marathon.”