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Letter to Centennial High School
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Posted by admin Sun Apr 27, 2008 22:46:18 PDT
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(Addressed to the administration of Centennial High School)

I was lucky enough to witness something wonderful today and felt it was important to pass it on to all of you.

This morning I took my son Andrew, 13, and five of his ice hockey teammates to a funeral for a teammate’s grandmother, who was also the grandmother of Centennial student Josh Dickey and Coach Dickey. My son attends Norris Middle School and has Dickey for fitness and PE, so he was there for Dickey as well as his hockey teammate.

When I walked into St. Francis Church I was brought to tears, not for the obvious reason, but because of the support for the family— It was the sea of red and gold baseball jerseys. Three full rows of “your boys.” I sat in the row directly behind them so I had a bird’s eye view. A Catholic Mass and funeral has many traditions and I am sure it seemed very long to many of the students, but I never saw anything but respect, attention and reverence. They all sat up straight, there was no talking or looking around, their baseball caps were on their knees or on the pew beside them.

At one point during Mass, when the “Our Father” was said, we held hands, and, yes, many of them even held hands with one another. There were a few smiles and quiet laughs over that, but it made it all that much sweeter. When it came time to receive communion, Father Harrison told the non-Catholic people that they could come to the altar to receive a blessing. For most people I know this would not be a big deal, but for an adolescent boy in an unfamiliar surrounding it could be uncomfortable, yet many of them chose to go to the altar with their Catholic teammates for a blessing. After the funeral out in front of church, each boy hugged teammate Josh and Coach Dickey. A few of them even showed some tears when they saw Josh sad and hurting.

The reason I share these details is that I hope you can get a clear picture of what I witnessed today. I know these young men thought they were just attending a funeral to pay respects and provide support to people who are close to them. What I know they do not realize is that they represented themselves, their families and Centennial High School with poise and class. They provide adults in our community hope that there are teenagers in Bakersfield who are good, involved and headed in the right direction. They acted as role models to the five middle school boys I sat with. They reinforced to younger boys what a team really can be, how high school boys can behave, and what they have to look forward to when they attend Centennial.

In your position, I know you hear the worst first. My hope is that as you start your day today you hear loud and clear that you have a wonderful group of boys playing Centennial baseball! They have a new fan.

— Susie Hallmark

 

Editor's note: This letter was originally sent to the administrators at Centennial High School and was brought to The Northwest Voice's attention.  It is printed with permission.

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Comment From: mandidarrin

Wow...I've read this letter over several times, and it gives me the chills everytime! This is such a great letter, and should make anyone affiliated with Centennial very proud!! Comment From: sshirls

Thank you Susie we need to hear more about what great kids we all have here in the Northwest.