May brought a number of highlights for Nate beginning with Prom on May 9. He went with Lauren Riddle, who is a lovely girl and has ironically a neighbor since we moved into our house when Nate was 17 months old. They had a great time and looked about as great as you can.
May 21, 2009 was Senior Recognition Night and Nate was invited to attend. During the ceremonies, he was awarded a $2,000.00 scholarship from the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation. It was based on his GPA, school involvement and essay he submitted. He also received another $500.00 scholarship from the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. Way to go Nate!!!!!
May 30, 2009 was the City of Santa Clarita's Relay for Life. Many teams sign up to walk the track and a member of each team needs to be on the track at all times for 24 hours from 9 am Saturday to 9 am Sunday. The relay is to raise money for cancer research. It was held at Central Park and had lots of tents and booths, along with the track, it was amazing. Nate first checked in at the Survivor Village where he was given a purple survivor shirt and medal. At 9:00 they had the "Survivors Lap." It was pretty amazing seeing him walk with so many others. During the day they had many different activities, screenings for different kinds of cancer and booths. They also sold small paper bags for $10.00 for the luminary cermony. Any person could purchase one and decorate it any way they wanted. Most are dedicated to loved ones lost to cancer and to survivors. They line them up all the way around the track on both sides. It was very sobering and humbling at 7:00 pm to walk around the track and see at least 30 luminaries dedicated to Nate, many with his picture. At 9:00 pm there was a program and they interviewed 7 cancer survivors from every age group. Nate was asked to represent the teenagers. He did a great job and made everybody laugh! They then had a candle ceremony with hundreds of people and a giant slide show lasting 45 minutes with pictures of people in the community who had died from cancer and those who were survivors. That night, Nate found out his sister Jocie had arrived as a surprise for him. She was there for both his ordination and graduation.
May 31, 2009 was a special day for many reasons. Since we had a lot of the family together Nate decided he wanted to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and be ordained an Elder in our church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was a spiritual and sweet experience to be surrounded by Dad, Mom, Jocie, Shaughanie, Michael, Eva and Benjamin, plus many dear friends, some of whom have known Nate since he was born. That evening Nate graduated from Seminary. He had attended Seminary for all four years of high school from 6:30 to 7:20 am. Even when he was sick and in the hospital, his teacher, Brother Steve Snow taped the lessons for him. Which was so kind of him. We all are very proud of Nate for these righteous choices.
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