Phylicia Cattladge of South Toledo, center, waited with her fellow graduates backstage before the start of the commencement ceremony.
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Jamal Gamble of West Toledo, left, talks with another graduate before the start of the commencement ceremony.
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"My grandmother got her GED when she was 72," Annie Custer of West Toledo, center, said. "She said if she could do it then there was no reason I couldn't."
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Yahana Ramsey-Evans of North Toledo, left, laughs with Angel Tall of West Toledo, center, and Antoinette Thomas of North Toledo before the start of the graduation ceremony.
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Caps and a tassel sit on a table, waiting for graduates, before the start of the commencement ceremony. Dozens of friends and family packed into the main stage auditorium to see their graduates, who were enrolled in the free program to help them earn their high school equivalency degrees.
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Neighbors Cathy Hebert, center right, and Melissa Trotzier, both of West Toledo, embrace before the start of the graduation ceremony. Hebert and Trotzier live around the corner from another, and both said they were excited to be graduating at the same time.
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Brittani Friess of West Toledo, center, opens an umbrella with money tapped to the inside as a gift from her grandmother.
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Sharon Cannon-Barrow, a volunteer mentor and outreach coordinator with the Sisters of Strength, smiles as she watches several of the students she had worked with file into the main stage at the beginning of the graduation ceremony.
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