COASTAL OBSERVER

Kristi Patterson waited to see her daughter walk down the hallway of Waccamaw Elementary School through misty eyes.

Waccamaw High School senior Claire Patterson, 18, was just about to start the second grade when the family moved to Pawleys Island in 2013. As Patterson teaches her current second-graders, it reminds her of how far her daughter will go.

“You’re a mom,” Patterson said. “You prepare them for society, making sure they’re making good choices, and you just hope that they spread their wings and fly.”

The senior class at Waccamaw High made their way through three of their old schools one last time before they graduate tonight.

Patterson made sure to have each of her students prepared for the senior’s celebratory walk with Claire’s softball pictures printed out and mounted on wooden rulers.

Once they turned the corner, the hallways of Waccamaw Elementary echoed with the cacophony of voices from pre-K through third grade. 

Children chanted and held out their hands with hopes of a high-five from a senior.

With 205 students in the 2024 graduating class, students formed close relationships with their teachers. 

Ally Douglas, the student body president who is on the pre-law track, was inspired to study law by a teacher who is now law school. 

Wearing paper masks of the seniors’ faces, the elementary students danced and laughed. 

As Charles Danysh walked through the halls, many of the kids waved photos of him that had been printed and distributed by his mom, Caroline, who works in the school’s media center.

Students who have been at Waccamaw schools their whole life, like Douglas, have sentimental ties to each school building.  

She worked as a teacher cadet and often visited the intermediate school. The senior walk gave her a chance to see the kids she taught again. 

“It’s really special to me,” she said. 

She ran for study body president to gain leadership experience and advises freshmen to get involved in school clubs for similar opportunities. 

“I joined every single club that Waccamaw had, and you don’t have to stay in them but it’s good to meet people,” Douglas said. 

Isla Minner, 7, was ecstatic when she saw her brother, Jace, walk by the classroom. 

For the Minner family, it’s also move-out day for their senior.

“We had really good memories together and we do cool things together like handshakes and all that cool stuff,” she said.

George Russell, 7, was looking forward to seeing his best friend’s older sister, Mary Cegledy. He said her musical talent as Waccamaw High’s drum major inspires him.

“It’s really emotional, I think. And seeing all the little faces, especially my brother’s,” Cegledy said. “It’s making me, kind of, choke up a little bit.”

The first class Patterson taught at Waccamaw Elementary will graduate this year. 

In a close-knit community like Pawleys Island, she said everyone knows everybody. 

George, the future baseball player, has hopes to be a Gamecock one day. On the other hand, Isla hopes to become a doctor or teacher. Wherever the classmates end up, Patterson said her students have a certain spark in their eye.

One of the most fulfilling parts of being a teacher, she said, is hearing a distant, yet loud, “Mrs. Patterson” from her students at the local grocery store or during trick-or-treating.

“We watch everybody grow up from when they were little,” Patterson said.