Went to Rick Starbard's fundraiser tonight for his COUNCILOR-AT-LARGE bid and since it was right next door to tonight's SCHOOL COMMITTEE debate there were plenty of politicians present. Of course the predictable potpourri of room working politics.
There was a powerful, personal introduction of RICK by his daughters, Jessica and Stephanie, were his sincerity and love for the city was stressed. In a wildly innovative move RICK shortened what probably have been a boring oratory to instead showcase the talents of a Lynn student(I wish I would have written her name down but you know how I am. I am sure RICK or someone will comment so proper credit will be give) playing the violin. Who does that? The game has been stepped up! I told you this COUNCILOR-AT-LARGE was going to be hot.
Here we go - Natalia Beos, a student in the LPS orchestra offer to play the violin
Natalia explained why she wanted to play before she began. It was tough to hear her soft voice so much of it went unheard. Natalia explained that she was diagnosed with autism when she was two years old. Lois originally met her on Pre-K when she was a para in her room. Lois became her 1:1 para for a few years at Sisson and they began a very close relationship. Lois helped her overcome some of the many challenges that her disability presented. In the 4th grade Natalia began to take violin lessons and that has transformed her life. Within a year this girl who barely spoke to anyone was now playing Christmas music on her violin in classrooms at Sisson. As she moved on to middle school, she grew as a musician, receive many accolades and was playing in the high school orchestra. Witnessing how that one instrument has changed her life is amazing. She is now entering her sophomore year at LEHS. It should be fun to watch her grow over the next three years and hopefully onto to college. When her mom called Lois to say that Natalia wanted to play at my event we were honored to say the least. What made it even better was that Joe Picano happened to be there not knowing that Natalia would be there. I wished that everyone could have heard Natalia explain her story herself because her transformation has been amazing.
ReplyDeleteWOW, SCHOOL IS SO MUCH MORE THAN TEST SCORES AND TEXTBOOKS!
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