STE. GENEVIEVE – Dominic Griffard has been selected as a Rotary Student of the Month at Valle Catholic High School.
He prepared this message for the Ste. Genevieve Rotary:
Hello, I am Dominic Griffard from Bloomsdale. My parents are Adrienne and Philip.
It is an honor to be in front of you all today. It never crossed my mind that I would get this privilege but here I am. I graduated from St Agnes Elementary School in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and I’ve been at Valle ever since.
One of my favorite parts about my time at Valle has been Cross Country. I’ve been a part of the Cross Country Varsity Team every year. My Sophomore Year I ran at the State meet with a time of 20:15 where we got 4th place. Last year I went to State as an extra runner where we placed 8th; and this year I completed and finished my last cross country race ever with a time of 19:24.
Besides cross country I did track and field my first two years of high school.
My Sophomore year I was a part of the Varsity Track team. I did the long and triple jumps. At the district meet I competed and made it into the top nine jumpers in long jump. I finished the meet having jumped 5.6 meters, my personal record, earning eighth place which gained the team a whopping ONE point.
I skipped track and field last year but I will be returning this year to hopefully earn the team another few points. Although my time with cross country has been awesome it is only one of my favorite school activities, the other one would be theater.
My Sophomore and Junior years I took part in the high school play. My Sophomore year I acted in the play “Mixed Nuts” where I performed as the Character Marshal Ryan. Last year I took part in “Curse of the Werewolf” where I played two characters, Algernon Snipes and Colonel Snipes, who were twin brothers. Both of these performances left me with lots of fond memories so I will also be acting in this school year’s performance.
My freshmen year a new club called Fun Fanatics was introduced. This club is for students who enjoy playing games including, board games, video games or any in between. Some of the meetings that have been hosted have gotten wild, with many objects being thrown across the room in a dodgeball like game or lots of yelling and screaming over a silly video game. The past two years I have been the co-leader of the club along with my friend Truman Tucker.
Academically I’ve been in the top ten students every year and I’ve averaged a 3.9 GPA and I’ve had an A honor roll all of freshman and Sophomore year.
Our high school requires us to complete 100 service hours by the end of senior years. To complete this I decided to go on Operation overhaul.
Operation Overhaul is a service retreat headed by the VIncentian Marian Youth organizations. My first year that I went we took a trip to Cedar Rapids Iowa. Once there I helped with replacing the roof of a woman’s home. It took us four days to complete and many hours of hard work under the hot sun but at the same time it was a lot of fun. The next year that I went we were in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the course of the week I helped paint a house, uproot old flooring, and clean an old person’s backyard. The yard was a jungle and it took us days to make it a usable space for the owner’s grandchildren. The yard was filled with old junk and it was completely overgrown. The other workers and I walked away from that experience with lots of stories to tell and smiles on our faces.
On top of operation overhaul I’ve also helped out with Totus Tuus. Totus Tuus is a week-long experience for young kids to learn about and grow in their faith. The workers needed the help of the other high schoolers and I to help keep the kids under control. Throughout the week we formed friendships with the kids and learned a thing or two ourselves.
With high school almost over I have to start looking forward and thinking about the future. As of now I plan on jumping right into the workforce.
My Grandfather has offered me a job At Buzzi Unicem, which is a company that specializes in the manufacturing, production, and distribution of different types of cement. With luck I will be able to make a fulfilling career out of it and earn an honest living.
Thank you all for choosing me as as the Rotary Student of the Month.