Graduates told to make difference.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Mark E. Ellis

PAXTON - Commencement speaker Kathryn Harrison told graduates, parents, friends and faculty at Anna Maria College yesterday it was their lucky day.

"I am not a public speaker, and while I cannot promise to be captivating, I can promise to be brief," said the author of two books on foster parenting and the foster mother of more than 150 children.

Her speech was brief, but it challenged the graduates to do more than just make a living when they leave college. It challenged them to make a difference.

The college's 58th commencement, held under a huge white tent in a field next to the school infirmary, got under way just as the skies cleared of rain clouds and the sun peeked through for the first time in days. As the graduates and faculty paraded in their gowns across the field, they obviously enjoyed the sunshine, even as they splashed through puddles left by the heavy morning rains.

Mrs. Harrison and her husband, Bruce, were among five recipients of honorary doctoral degrees. In presenting the Harrisons with their degrees, interim President Gerald A. Garrity commended them for dedicating their lives to service of those most in need. "Kathryn and Bruce Harrison have opened their hearts and their homes to the most vulnerable among us," he said.

Besides being foster parents to so many, the Harrisons are parents to three children by birth and three by adoption. They also have made a difference in the lives of hundreds of others by helping to train new foster parents and working with state officials on foster parenting programs, Mr. Garrity said. Mrs. Harrison has written two books about the family's experiences, "Another Place at the Table" and "One Small Boat," and is a spokesperson for the National Foster Parent Association.

Other honorary degree recipients were Betty Neuman, R.N., Ph.D., PLC, FAAN, creator of the Neuman Systems Model of Nursing; David L. Higgins Jr., former executive director of Community Healthlink of Worcester; and Mr. Garrity for his many years of service to Anna Maria.

In her speech to the graduates, Mrs. Harrison, who lives with her family in Cummington, said the past week had been a difficult one. Her husband's mother died suddenly on Mother's Day.

One evening, she said, family members gathered at her home to write her mother-in-law's obituary. It struck her that only one line was devoted to what her mother-in-law did for a living while there were several paragraphs about how she spent her life.

While it is important to make a living, she told the students...