Shelly Romine wrote about Naliyah:
This is Naliyah. She is a very sweet soft spoken Junior at Dobson High. Her father lives in California and her Mom wasn't very interested in parenting so she was left with her older sister. She is doing OK in school but struggles with math but is getting tutored. She is in the dance program at school and is interested in becoming a hair stylist after high school. She's a girly girl and loves pink. She asked for a Hello Kitty Comforter for her bed and hot pink room decor. She was very excited the items from the club that she opened and wanted to save some things to open later with her family. She is very excited to attend RYLA next month to make new friends and gain some confidence.
Omran is being mentored by Kayla Mudge
Omran is a Red Mountain student and is on the wrestling team as well as studying to be a mechanical engineer. He wants to go to ASU. Food gift cards were his favorite gifts - Chik-Fil-A and Pizza.
Gabby Duran shared her experience with Allison
She is doing phenomenal in school, missing only 2 days this quarter.
I love that I can speak to her in Spanish, which is her primary language. She is working on learning English and when I spoke to her about RYLA she was hesitant to attend due to language barrier. I let her know that would not be an issue and then proceeded to speak Colleen about having her speak with Braly, which she did and this past Friday. When I saw Allison she had registered for RYLA and thanked us for connecting her to Braly who gave her the confidence and courage to attend even though English is not her biggest forte yet.
I took my oldest daughter, Jocelyn (19) to present Allison with her Christmas wish list and you could tell she was so happy and excited but also nervous about the experience- as I can imagine any teen would be with a "stranger" presenting her with gifts. Nonetheless I let her know that I was here to make her feel comfortable and that her hard work and her outstanding personality deserves to be recognized and this was just a small token to show her that she is deserving and should feel nothing but happiness to know she is cared and valued.
She then proceeded to tell us that she wanted to open all of them and each gift brought a new emotion and excitement that only in that moment can you really soak in and keep forever in your heart. Her eyes opened up when she saw her Sephora gift card and in Spanish said, "Oh! Para mi maquillaje" "Oh! for my makeup!" and looked up at me and my daughter with such joy.
Needless to say the wireless headphones make her smile from ear to ear. She opened up her shoes and said, "mis Converse! oh muchas gracias ya tengo zapatos!" "my Converse! thank you so much, I now have shoes!"
Mind you, in between all this we were talking about life, school, RYLA, if she had done her appointments to get clothing from Helen's Chest and a little bit of everything. Getting to know her more and making her feel comfortable to open up gifts in a classroom setting. 😀 I also presented her with her stipend for which she was so surprised and very grateful.
The biggest emotion, which gave my daughter and I that beautiful knot in your throat filled with emotion, is when she opened up the Apple pen and I asked her what is that for and how is used, as I had no knowledge of this. She proceeds to tell us that it's used for an Ipad and you can write with it draw and all sorts of things. I asked her if she had an Ipad since she asked for the pen, she let us know that she does not but her cousin does and at times can use it. We already knew what the next gift was-- it was NOT on her Christmas wish list but as Melodie said--- "What good is an apple pen without an Ipad?"
She went to grab the last gift---- which oddly enough the way she opened them led to this exact moment- not planned by me nor did I place the gifts as such- it just happened that the last item was an Ipad.
BOY did her eyes light up and did her voice scream WOW!!!! NO!!!!! NO!!!! An Ipad!!!!!!!!!!! My very own Ipad!!!!!!!!!!!! She thanked us pretty much the rest of the time we were there but that joy, that unexpected Christmas spirit and magic that happens when you make a child's dream come true----- it's like nothing else and I say child because these students are still kids! They are minors and they deserve to for a moment not feel the stress of life that they might encounter and live day in and day out. To know that their only responsibility is to go to school and learn and unfortunately our McKinney Vento students not all get to just be kids and be loved like they should and to have that magic of Christmas and know that what they ask for they will receive.
I told her to keep up the good work she is doing and the club is here for her and that we want to see her succeed and do amazing things. Thank you! Thank you for letting me be a part of something bigger than me and for bringing the joy of Christmas to these students.