What an exciting evening we had last Thursday! 

My daughter Isreal, a Junior in High School was honored along with other students at the Athletic & Band Awards Ceremony.   My 8yo son and  I sat there and watched some amazing things happen that  evening that truly warmed my heart.  As the awards were being passed out, you would hear the announcer say something like this: “Now for our Varsity Football Awards. First up is Joe Schmo who set a DC record for rushing, scored 4 touchdowns at our championship game and has accepted a FULL Scholarship to XYZ University”.  Announcements like that happened 10, count them! 10 times for just the Male Varsity Football AND Basketball Teams.  Each time I heard it, I stood and clapped for that young man as he were my own and I’ve never met them before.  The final award was given to this quiet looking young man and the announcer said “And last but certainly not least is our Basketball MVP award which goes to Joe Schmo who has just accepted a full scholarship to HARVARD for Basketball and Academics. He has a 4.2 GPA”!! Well, the ENTIRE stadium of people just about jumped up from their seats and darn near clapped, stomped and rose the ROOF off of that place. It was amazing!

My daughter Isreal was presented with 3 trophies (Volleyball, softball & cheer-leading), one Plaque (Basketball Most Valuable Player — you go) and a Certificate (for maintaining a solid 3.2 and or higher all year long while participating in a sport each school quarter - 4 sports in all).   She was beaming, I was beaming and the Principal joked with her and said that she needs to keep on working out so that she can CARRY her awards out of the school and into my car. I am so pleased with Isreal this year but what pleases me the most is to see how happy and proud she is.  Also, her watching those students, her friends awarded and also praised for scholarships added more fuel to her fire!

Here is a picture of her: