Just Like in the Movies

Woohoo's and Rojo's high school had their equivalent of Field Day on Friday - a day spent having fun. Yummy food, fun activities, a time to be with all your friends and just goof around together. Both kids were really looking forward to it - Woohoo, because it was her last, and Rojo, because it was his first.

The school has had year-long fund raising efforts to help support their sister school in Kenya. On Friday they were raffling off four donated tickets to the Portland Timbers, to raise money for their favorite cause. I'd given each kid a few bucks to spend on food. Rojo used some of his to buy a bag of popcorn, and spent three dollars buying three raffle tickets.

At the end of the day there was an assembly, where various things took place, not the least of which was the drawing for the raffle. You guessed it, Rojo won. Out of 600 kids in the school, he won. That was great, but not the greatest part. The greatest part was what happened next - his name was called and the WHOLE ENTIRE SCHOOL spontaneously stood up, clapped, cheered, and chanted his name. And there were tears. Lots of tears. Lots and lots of happy, touched, thrilled, tears.

I had people coming up to me in the parking lot after school, calling, texting, e-mailing, stopping me when they saw me in the neighborhood - everyone had heard or was there.

It was a Hollywood ending. Sometimes things really do happen like in the movies.