Memorial Awards

It's a busy week this week and next, with school finishing up soon.   Schools are having their end of year presentation assemblies at the moment, and this year I donated memorial award for Noah again at the boy's school and also memorial awards for Aaron and Noah at Kings Meadows High School. 

At the Punchbowl celebration night Jalen got to present an award as a part of the Student Leadership Board group of students who used to attend Punchbowl Primary.  Queechy High donate an award to someone going to Queechy the following year.

This year the Noah King Friendship Award went to Seb Annear.  We wanted to make sure that the award was given to someone who shows care and concern for others. 

Because I used to work at the school, I got to know a lot of the kids.  One day I noticed Seb and how lovely he was and made a comment to his teacher, that he would be a great recipient of Noah's award this year.  I didn't think much more of it, and was happily surprised when they announced that he had won it this year.

Today I went along to the Kings Meadows High School presentation assembly to present Noah and Aaron's memorial awards.  I had breakfast with some friends this morning (LOVE my days off work!) and they were asking me how I was feeling about going. I said I wasn't really excited, nervous or sad, but was glad to do it. It's so different now that the students at school don't really know Aaron, as it's been almost four years since he passed away.  I felt okay until I was just about to get up, and then felt a bit emotional.

I was so happy to hear that Bowen Pearce had won the Aaron King Memorial Prize this year, as I know his family.  It was lovely to chat to him and his Mum afterwards, and his Mum was saying how honored they were that he got it.   The prize goes to a grade 9 students who has qualities that Aaron had, or what he looked for in his students including being hard working, compassionate, they endeavor to do their best academically and love sports. 

This year Angela Durrant won the Noah King Memorial Prize for Child Studies. The teacher that used to ask me to take Noah to Child Studies to talk about having a child with a disability, no longer works at the school, and I miss talking to the students about him. 

 After it was over I headed to the cemetery and sat at Aaron's grave for a bit. 
Just before I left I sat in the car and put some photos up on Instagram about the awards and looked up and saw a car coming towards me.  I then heard a voice say 'stop crying!' and had to laugh when I looked up and saw my friends Marnie and Norbert in their car.  Their baby Isabella passed away a couple of years ago, and they asked me to speak at her funeral and take photos. It was such a hard time for them, and it's so lovely to see them smile all the time again.

I laughed and told them I wasn't crying and was just texting :)  This is the photo they took of me :)

We had a nice chat and talked about how often we go up to the cemetery.   It's crazy how life turns out. 

I'm glad that I can keep Aaron and Noah's memories alive through donating the memorial awards each year. It's always nice to go back to Aaron's old school and catch up with his work colleagues.  I know that they miss him (almost!) as much as we do.