Hanover — Along with current-events references to bears and bygone pizza parlors, Hanover High School on Friday celebrated its 2017 graduates by reminding them to remember their privilege as they enter the wider world.

Benjamin Seaman, who gave the graduation address, congratulated his 196 classmates for completing their studies in Hanover, “one of those places where your chances of running into an Olympic athlete or a bear in your backyard are roughly the same,” and also lamented the loss of a true “institution,” Everything But Anchovies.

But he also called on his peers to consider the advantages they had enjoyed in childhood, and to seek out and engage people different to them, some of whom may not have had access to the same resources. In other words, as he jokingly put it, the graduates should talk to “people who eat gluten.”

Few of the graduates or the hundreds of parents, teachers and friends assembled that evening on Merriman-Branch Memorial Field would have understood that lesson better than Cam Marshall, a senior who fought leukemia and launched a charity to support Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, or CHaD.

One day in July 2008, Marshall, then 8 years old, was diagnosed with leukemia. CHaD admitted him to an inpatient unit, and he started chemotherapy immediately.

The first visit lasted two weeks — long enough for Marshall to grow familiar with his surroundings, and with the other children in his ward.

Above all, he remembers that “they had smiles on their faces.”

“They were some of the most positive and comforting and caring people that I’d ever met in my life, and they were going through things that I had never had to deal with,” he said in a telephone interview before graduation. “I also saw parents tirelessly caring for their kids.”

His own mother, Elena Marshall, was by his side as well, and Cam started to think about what he could do for her and the other parents and children there, most of whom couldn’t get a bite to eat without leaving the inpatient unit.

From that was born B+, or “Be Positive,” a program that takes its name both from his blood type and his motto during the period. The charitable campaign provides refrigerators, snacks and other amenities for children’s cancer wards, and Marshall, who has since recovered from his leukemia, funds his initiative through such events as CHaD races, charitable football games and an annual “secret Santa” drive.

Upper Valley residents may also know Marshall and his family from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; they were featured in a 2009 episode of the ABC network show in which volunteers built or refurbished homes for deserving families.

He and a group of fellow Hanover High students paid it forward this March, when they visited Nicaragua to build two homes. And at the end of the month, Marshall, a wide receiver on the football team, will play in CHaD’s “All-Star” benefit game.

Marshall says he plans to defer his first year at the University of New Hampshire to take service trips and devote time and energy to other causes, including, perhaps, the Nicaragua homebuilding.

Memories of his fundraising have stayed with Marshall through his childhood, and he plans to continue it from afar while he attends college.

“Wherever I am in the future to grow B+,” Marshall said, “I think it’ll be even stronger.”

One year, when Marshall was 9, he sent out his secret Santa emails before the holidays. Soon after, he found himself celebrating Christmas in the hospital. The staff at CHaD, he remembered, had set up a tree and put gifts under it. Marshall received a small teddy bear, which, looking at the faces around him, he knew he couldn’t keep.

“I gave it to a little girl that I had seen in the inpatient unit,” he said. “She smiled, and that was pretty amazing.”

In addition to Seaman’s speech, Friday’s festivities saw addresses from English teacher Marie D’Amato and seniors Henry Lang and Julia Mae Butler. Mary Feyrer, Teresa Snyder and Juliana Taube are the class valedictorians.

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.

Hanover Class of 2017

Liam Patrick Abbate, Santa Clara University; Clare R Rose Abbatiello, University of Vermont; Jacob Acker, Bentley University; Lucas Adams-Blackmore, Queen’s University; Sylvie Alexander, Skidmore College; Alan H Baker, gap year; Katherine E Barr; Nicholas Arthur Bartholow, University of La Verne; Margaret Ayn Birkmeyer, New York University; Caitlin Elizabeth Blinkhorn, Holderness; Brian Boitnott, Bates College; Jeffrey Boitnott, Carleton College; William Bonner, American University; Tyler Charles Bowen; Eliza Bradley, University of Toronto; Ella Ute Breed, Western Washington University; John J Brendel III, UVM; Ella Rose Brisson, Westminster College; Katarina Sophia Bristol, University of New Hampshire at Durham; Owen Brooks, Colorado College; Kate Stanger Budney, Dartmouth College; Julia Mae Butler, Columbia University; Sophie Marie Cardenali, St. Lawrence University; Will G Chambers, University of Redlands; Charles Chen, Dartmouth College; Annika Cole, Elon University; Stefan Robert Cole, Roger Williams University; Aidan Connolly, Champlain College; Alvaro Cooper-Perales, Fordham University; Johanna Copeland, Wesleyan University; J. Noah Cowie, Wheaton College; Thomas Crory, employed; Rebecca Brown Crosby, Trinity College; Schuyler Cyrus, The University of Akron; Roger Jefferson Danilek, Hamilton College; Kai Maxwell Darrow, St. John’s College; Grace Dickenson Davis, The New School; Isabel Davis, University of Virginia; Anna Kathleen Dickson, Bowdoin College; Jensen Terp Dodge, gap year; Adelaide King Downey, Pratt Institute; Hannah Rose Driscoll; Matthias Eilertsen, University of Latvia, Riga; Alexandra Kathryn Elliott, Johnson & Wales University; Glen R Enneper, Northeastern University; Ashley Virginia Farina, Prescott College; Alicia Constance Farrell, The George Washington University; Antonia Coyote Farrell, College of William and Mary; Daniel H. Felde, UVM; Mary Clare Feyrer, Cornell University; Caffrey C Fielding, Rhode Island School of Design; Parker Finkelstein, Plymouth State University; Ryan Aquilla Scott Finley, PSU; Ernest Daniel Fleischer, Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences; Emily Elizabeth Foster, The New School; Ethan James Friedland, American University; Gwendolyn Friedman, Northeastern University; Benjamin George Gantrish, The Tilton School; Clare Gardner, Endicott College; Sadhya Garg, Tufts University; Kathryn Olivia George, Dalhousie University; Andrea Caroline Gilardi, Clark University; Adam Glueck, Dartmouth College; Jonathan Joseph Goff, Skidmore College; Allyce Good, Esmod Paris; Liam Gurman, gap year; Thomas Finnegan Hackett, UVM; Kristian Stig Svenning Hansen, University of Minnesota; Ciara Jane Hart, employed; Hayden R Hatfield, Southern New Hampshire University; John He, Middlebury College; Marcus Helble, Bowdoin College; Sage A Herz, Lafayette College; Finn Higgins, Montana State University, Bozeman; Lara Anne Hoffer, Kenyon College; Joseph B Indorato, PSU; Samuel Ives, McGill University; Arturo Moffatt Johnson, PG Year; Griffin C Johnson, Colgate University; Mikayla Lynne Johnson, year off; Avery Judd, UNH at Durham; Thomas Judd, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Simon Kahan, American University; Francesca Brianne Kealey, University of Colorado at Boulder; Gabriella Hee-Eun Kim, Colby College; Madeleine E Kim, Roger Williams University; Kyle Edward Koehler, Project Search program at DHMC; Divya C Kopalle, Dartmouth College; Margaret Kotz, Dartmouth College; Ryan Dailey Kynor, Lehigh University; Thea J LaCrosse, Wesleyan University; Sonthaya M Lacy, UNH at Durham; Henry Lang, Northwestern University; Madison Leonard, LIM College (Laboratory Institute of Merchandising); Sarah Madeleine Lightbody, Scripps College; Patrick C Logan, Deerfield Academy; Gabriel Loud, Colgate University; Amelia Bugbee Lubrano, Colby College; Samuel Lutz, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Madeline Lyons, Middlebury College; Alexander James Macaulay, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Sarah MacCormick, Bates College; Henry Mackall, University of Chicago; Joseph A.M.R Marceau, Brandeis University; Hannah Rose Marks, Cornell University; Cameron V Marshall, gap year; Abigail A Mayo, Castleton University; Leslie M McNamara, Colorado College; Morgan J Meliment, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Luke Frederick Messersmith, Union College; Mahler Meyerrose, gap year; Kirsten Miller, Colby College; Andreas Mark Christian Moberg, non-U.S. college; Avery J. Monahan, Roanoke College; Bridget H. Monahan, Castleton University; Grant P Morhun, UNH at Durham; Elisabeth Margaret Morrell, UNH at Durham; Anthony Michael Movizzo, Fitchburg State University; Tyler Nabinger, NYU; Rainier Nahabedian, Clark University; Rachel Neumann, UC at Boulder; J. Cheston M. Newbold III, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Meghan Bridget O’Connor, Johnson & Wales University; Saorla O’Toole, St. Lawrence University; Harrison James Olszewski, Binghamton University; Annette E Osborn, Mount Holyoke College; Amanda P Owens, Scripps College; Kamron Joseph Paydarfar, Landmark College; Sylvia Sage Penfield, Whitman College; Camila Pentland, Syracuse University; Christopher Robert Phillips, Ryerson University; Olivia Pierce, James Madison University; Adam A Pikielny, Brown University; Lia Caroline Caroline Pikus, Rice University; Marie Alexander Pillsbury, Muhlenberg College; Charlotte Pyle, University of Pittsburgh; Luke S. Ratliff, Whitman College; Kristin B Reed, Rhodes College; Brittany M Richard, Merrimack College; Wilson Rimberg, McGill University; Cleo Roback, gap year; Graeson M Rollins, employed; Elizabeth Harris Rooker, Mount Allison University; Jessica E.D. Rosien, Dartmouth College; Chiara Rothwell-Ferraris, Goucher College; Tenzing S. Rumrill, Champlain College; Liam C. Ryan-O’Flaherty, Reed College; Maxwell W Saucier, Davidson College; Hallie Nichole Scarbrough, George Mason University; Daniel Ian Schertzer, University of Victoria; Benjamin C Seaman, Bates College; Talbot David Seigne, Boston University; Brian Louis Seltzer, St. Lawrence University; Nanako Shirai, Princeton University; Shoshana Siegel, Elmira College; Nathalie Ornelas Simon, Rochester Institute of Technology; Ezra Slayton, employed; William Spurgeon Smith, Roanoke College; Elijah Soll Snelling, UNH at Durham; Teresa D Snyder, Johns Hopkins University; Benjamin Aaron Sobel, Dickinson College; Noah Soderquist, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Dimitri A Somoff, Occidental College; Ivan V Somoff, Dickinson College; Martin M.H. Sorensen, Florida Institute of Technology; Georgia Sparks, Barnard College; Sara Ellis Spencer, UVM; Ruby Kathryn Spitz, Santa Clara University; Connor Stafford, Gettysburg College; Annabelle Starosta, The University of Alabama; Casey Martin Starr, Westminster College; Payton Stearns, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Laila Li Stevens, Bates College; Samuel David Strohbehn, Tufts University; Christopher Suri Sundaram, Boston College; Samuel Supattapone, Dartmouth College; Caroline Daniels Tally, Williams College; Leah Mary Tanny, UVM; Juliana Taube, Bowdoin College; Noah MacDara Taylor, Northeastern University; Johannes M Testorf, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Eleanor R Tsapakos, UVM; Hye Rine Uhm, Dartmouth College; Alessandro Vecchi, Ithaca College; Avery Wallis, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; John Pius Warhold, Benedictine College; Joseph Warhold, Ringling College of Art and Design; Alexander JP Wark, gap year; Alexis Rose Webber-McCollaum, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Margaret C Werner, Amherst College; Benjamin White, Keene State College; Daniel Wilson, Wheaton College; Ethan L Winberry, gap year; Reed R Winter, Grinnell College; Hannah M Wittmann, UNH at Durham; Charles C Wohlforth, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Tian Xing, The School of Architecture and Design at Southwest Jiaotong University; Kayla E Zentmaier, Wesleyan University; Joe Zhang, Dartmouth College.

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