Dr Seuss and Beirut’s refuse problem were the stand out themes at the graduation ceremony for 103 Beirut Baptist School (BBS) preschool students in June.Each class performed a Dr Seuss poem to parents in the packed-out auditorium at Emile Lahoud Convention Centre including ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, ‘Hop on Pop’ and ‘the Lorax’.
One class performed ‘Let it grow’ from ‘the Lorax’ and drew a powerful link to the current garbage problem in Beirut where rubbish is regularly not being collected. Children brought on coloured bags of refuse into the middle of the stage and piled them up, while other students waved cut-outs of trees.
“Look around us, where is our green Lebanon?” they said. “We don’t want to see garbage on our streets. We want to see trees – let it grow!”
The preschool valedictorians, who will now move onto Grade 1 at BBS, then gave confident speeches to an audience of hundreds. The final student shouted down the microphone “I’m so ready for Grade 1!”
The presentation part of the graduation concluded with the children, dressed in white caps and gowns singing a powerful rendition of ‘How Great is our God’ in Arabic.
The students then received their graduation scrolls presented by BBS Associate Director of Preschool and Lower Elementary Gigi Awabdah, BBS Academic and Operational Directors Alice Wazir and Toni Haddad, LSESD Executive Director Nabil Costa, and the evening’s keynote speaker, TV personality, Dede Farah.
Chris Hall | LSESD | June 2016