This is a great story, simply beautiful. I'm proud to say this is our local high school for the Abita Springs community where my daughter graduated in 2007. Enjoy:
Fontainebleau High School community rallies round its homecoming queen
As the senior maids sat nervously awaiting the results of the election for Fontainebleau High School homecoming queen, Sarah Liuzza and Annie Kurtz didn't want to hear their names called. Instead, they hoped the student body would make this selection of school royalty a special one.
Their wishes were granted when a tiara was placed on the head of Katie Brewster. It didn't matter to Liuzza, Kurtz or anyone else at the Mandeville-area school that Brewster couldn't tell them thank you in words. The 21-year-old special needs student who suffers from cerebral palsy said it all with just a smile.
It has been six weeks since Brewster was voted homecoming queen, and the glow surrounding her face is still there. On a daily basis, she interacts with friends at school, thanks in part to the "Bulldogs Buddies" program. Through this program, students spend time and help coordinate events for their classmates with special needs, such as their own Special Olympics in the spring and an Easter egg hunt.
Mostly, though, students like Liuzza and Kurtz, both of whom are Bulldog Buddies, just want to befriend those who are less fortunate. The program, which opened with 10 or 12 students several years ago, now has roughly 150 participants from the school's enrollment of 1,942 -- the second-largest in the state, after Lafayette High School.
"I think it says so much (about Fontainebleau students) that we're all just so welcoming," Liuzza said.
The special needs students "are the sweetest kids you'll ever meet," she said. "Just to see their faces light up when you write them a note or give them a hug, it's the best thing ever."
Said Kurtz: "It made the whole experience so much greater for her to win, and we had a lot of fun. I was definitely rooting for her. Everyone was rooting for her."
Michelle Anderson, Brewster's mother, had a hard time explaining how she felt, and her feelings of joy were not simply for her daughter's victory, but for the children who marked the ballots and the ones who sat beside her daughter on the stage awaiting the results.
"These are all queens, all of them," Anderson said. "Their heart is just in what they are doing. I'm a mother, I can tell.
Katie Brewster was elected homecoming queen by her classmates at Fontainebleau High School. The school community rallied around her nomination and election.
She said her daughter "was tickled. A lot of times our kids can be invisible, and I think that she was so proud. I look back at pictures and video, and the look on her face, I just knew at that moment that she truly felt a part of everything."
The process began with Brewster being nominated by her senior class homeroom. From there, she became a finalist, at which point she was guaranteed to be named either maid or queen. Anderson had a hard time believing the final results.
"I almost passed out," she said. "There were kids who were Facebooking her and in the hallways saying, 'I'm going to vote for you for queen,' and I kept saying, 'Stop with the Q word; we're just grateful to be where we are. Quit.' I didn't really even entertain the idea."
Anderson seems to be in the minority in that regard. When the school's principal, Johnny Vitrano, found out, he said he wasn't all that surprised. That doesn't mean he didn't have a tear or two in his eyes when he heard the results.
"When they told me right before they announced it, I was just blown away with pride about how our student body would do such a good thing," Vitrano said.
As for just about everyone diagnosed with cerebral palsy, life hasn't been easy for Brewster. She has seizures and a plethora of orthopedic issues. She has had 16 surgeries and wasn't able to walk until she was 7 years old.
For the first 10 years of Brewster's life, her mother was more concerned with the physical aspects of the affliction. Since then, Anderson has made education a top priority, especially the past few years.
Teacher Susan Furlan is working with her special needs class on Christmas cultures and traditions across the world, focusing on one country each day until the beginning of winter break next week. The level of learning varies among students, depending on their circumstances, and Furlan always makes sure she is there for them.
"We do lots of academic things, because I haven't given up on them," she said. "A lot of people think that when they are at this age and they have significant disabilities, they've already peaked. Well, I don't believe that."
The students' faces aren't the only ones a little brighter these days. Vitrano watches from a distance and gets emotional, knowing he has something special at his school.
"This year at the homecoming dance, I'm monitoring from the stage, and to see our Bulldog Buddies, some of these girls who are just outstanding students and beauties, and they leave their little clique," he said. "They go over to their special needs kids, and they dance with them and spend time with them. At that time when they are all dressed up and in their little peer environment, and they would leave that and go to those kids makes that all the more special. You can't teach that."
Anderson attests that the program has been instrumental, especially for her daughter. As she has watched her daughter grow, Anderson more than recognizes how important the Fontainebleau family has been for Brewster.
"The one thing that I have said before is that Katie is standing on their shoulders, and they put her there. It has been amazing."
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