About 30 East Aurora High School students volunteered at the Aurora Noon Lions Club s annual "Great Pumpkin" Halloween pancake breakfast fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 30.
Stockbridge honors 20th anniversary of Sept 11 attacks henryherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from henryherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Students find their place in Comeaux High NJROTC program
View Comments
When she was little, 16-year-old Sydney Liles wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, join the Marine Corps or become president of the United States maybe all three. Then she was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a degenerative nerve disease, at age 12. It was really hard, because I had big dreams, she said. Some of those are not possible anymore. (CMT) affects all my nerves and muscles in my body. It affects everything my walking, talking, writing.
But she s still chasing dreams and accomplishing them with help from her two families her biological family and the one she s found in her school s Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) program. The two actually overlap, as her twin brother Charles also is a cadet.
Rancho Penasquitos teen Sophia Righthouse joined the local Young Marines service program as one of the youngest recruits when she was 8 years old with an eye on becoming a military officer one day.
Not too surprising since Sophia’s family has served in various branches of the military the Marines, Air Force and Army going back to the American Revolution. But what really got her inspired was her grandfather’s stories of his missions as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, stories of bravery and perseverance.
“He truly inspired me to give back to my country,” Sophia, 17, said.
Since joining the Miramar unit of the national Young Marines program nine years ago, Sophia has distinguished herself in her quest to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps.