MANCHESTER— Rain didn't sour the celebration for about 400 people at a ceremony honoring 13 young men and women graduating Tuesday from the Robert B. Jolicoeur School.

“Life isn't about finding yourself,” Mayor Ted Gatsas told the graduates. “Life is about creating yourself.” He told them the lessons they learned at the school operated by Easter Seals New Hampshire are the “same lessons you will carry on for life.”

Past graduate Samantha Pardi reiterated that point in a brief speech after being awarded the Sweeney Sisters Scholarship of $2,700 to help pay for human services courses she is taking at Phoenix University.

She was 13 when she entered the Jolicoeur School as an angry child who hated the world and the people around her, she said,

Now married and the mother of two children, Pardi told the graduates she thought everybody was against her. But she realized an education helps in obtaining a career and accomplishing a goal.

“Choosing to continue your education can get you to your goal,” she said. “If I did it, so can you.”

An inspirational talk came from Charles Root, who with his wife, Rose, was awarded the Community Connections Award for working with the staff to ensure his son, also named Charles Root, would succeed at Jolicoeur. Charles Root was among the 13 graduates.

Root said his son was an aggressive 5-year-old kindergartner who bit other students. When the Massachusetts town where he lived wanted to hold him back in kindergarten, he said his son was finally diagnosed with autism. He was enrolled in a collaborative school and lived at home but he could be violent and sometimes broke windows, lamps and a television. The couple had to call police for help because he was out of control.

By the time he was 13, someone called child services after seeing him act out on the street. Root said he had to hire a lawyer, there was an investigation and he had to go to court but eventually everything was dropped. He knew it was time to put his son in a group home because of his aggressive behavior, but it broke his heart.

His son remained at the group home for eight years, unable to ever leave. When he turned 20, however, he was put into an adult housing unit, where he had his own apartment. He wasn't suited to living alone, his father said, and ended up in the Hampstead Hospital. When he was released, he was not allowed back at the apartment.

It was then that he was enrolled at the Jolicoeur School, which Root said made all the difference in the world. His son gradually adjusted to life outside the residential treatment facility, going out to lunch and dinner every weekend with his parents and going bowling.

After graduation, the son will return to Massachusetts where he will enter an adult services program. His father said he wished New Hampshire would change the law so his son could remain where he has done so well.

The ceremony, held under a large white tent on the Zachary Road campus, also featured the school's chorus, which sang “Rainbow Connection,” and a solo by student Chloe Hutchins who sang “Because You Love Me” as a slideshow played dedicated to Larry Gammon, Easter Seals President and CEO. Gammon has been with the nonprofit for 40 years. In March, Gammon suffered a major heart attack which, he said, left him a heartbeat away from death.

Also graduating yesterday were Sarah Daniels, who was presented the student Community Connections Award; Jonathan Colon; Mary “Jessica” Cook; Kyle Henrick; Falisha Jones; Dustin Mayes; Timothy McDonald; Habib Moussaoui; Casey Phillips; Kasey Riley; Mark Staples; and Jon York.