Wynter Thorne didn’t want the evening to end.

Clutching a bouquet of roses, Thorne was the last of 61 Coupeville High School graduates to leave the gymnasium last Friday night as she savored every last moment.

Thorne and others who are part of Coupeville’s 115th graduating class called the experience of leaving high school for the final time “surreal” with the sense that life would never be quite the same again.

“It’s hard leaving this community behind, but I guess you never really leave it behind because you carry it with you,” said McKayla Bailey, who’s headed to Central Washington University.

Bailey, whose family on Central Whidbey runs several generations deep, was involved in one tearful embrace after another after senior class president Amanda Hoesman-Foley took the microphone and announced to her classmates that they were now graduates.

Outgoing Principal Larry Walsh congratulated the graduating class and introduced Hoesman-Foley, the first of four valedictorians with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages who addressed the crowded gym.

The other valedictorians were Erin Rosenkranz, Michael Kelly and Kylie Burdge, who also delivered a song with Trumbull and Isaac Vargas strumming guitars.

Marisa Etzell gave the salutatorian address.

School board president Chris Chan and vice president Glenda Merwine awarded diplomas to students.

An exception was made when Superintendent Jim Shank was allowed to hand a diploma to his son Matthew.

“It really was a special moment for our family,” Jim Shank said.

Jim Shank called Coupeville’s 2015 class “outstanding” with “some of the finest young men and women I have worked with” and said they will be missed.

“They are not only a very intelligent, talented and capable group, they are kind, well mannered, generous and care for others,” Shank said.