Celebrate!

Jun 13, 2025

Session 7 Week 3

On Thursday at the splash pad, a guide was sitting on a park bench watching the heroes play at the playground. She struck up a conversation with a grandma, unrelated to CHOICE, sitting next to her. The Grandma immediately said, “These children are so good! They are kind to each other, not mean at all. It gives me hope.” Even strangers quickly notice the good in your children. As we wrapped up another school year this week, this was only one of the many reasons we had to celebrate: We celebrated the heroes’ kindness.

We celebrated their ability to and willingness to work hard:

On Wednesday, heroes interspersed playing games with helping pack up in preparation for their new school!

We celebrated their self-awareness:

If you didn’t make it to the DELTA Studio during Exhibition, I wanted to share just a few examples of the incredible self-awareness and beautiful growth that these young people shared with us. In case you can’t read it: In one of their Hero’s Journeys this year, how this hero recognized they changed: “Learning the importance of pushing yourself even when you feel like giving up”
“I look for ways I can help more.”
“Accepting myself as a person.”
“Speaking up for my opinion.”

We celebrated how much fun the heroes have together – their willingness to play:

DELTA Studio had a pseudo track meet this week. They learned lots of new skills!

We celebrated their creativity and thinking outside the box:

Fire Studio heroes created their own games this week.

We celebrated their ability to plan and execute events:

We celebrated how much the heroes love one another. (Sometimes this even brought them – and us – to tears):

Fire Studio giving character call outs to those moving into the DELTA Studio next year.
“Pass the paper. A DS tradition where they write something specific and kind about each hero in the studio.”
Graduating DELTAs gave each younger DS hero a specialized award and gift.
Younger DS heroes gave each graduate a picture of their tribe and crocheted a “Steve” for them – A labor of love!

We celebrated their growth in all areas of life.

We celebrated our community at large. The heroes aren’t the only one’s kind to each other. THANK YOU parents for the ways you are kind to one another. We LOVE watching you parents enjoy one another.

Thank you to our snow cone crew!

As we say goodbye to our graduates, our hearts are full. Full of love and gratitude for who you are and what you have shared with us. Full of hope for your incredible futures ahead. And some selfish sadness because you will be missed so dearly. On Thursday night I was talking to a parent of Fire and Spark studio heroes. He said, “I don’t know what it looks like, but somehow this whole community should give back to these graduates. They have had such a role in creating what CHOICE is for all of us.” It is so true. Adults do all we can do, but in a learner driven community it is the young people who make it happen. We started with an idea and you consistently made intentional choices to help CHOICE grow to what it is today. You paved and built the way. We are all grateful to you.

A Spark hero said this year: “If my hero’s journey could talk it would say, ‘I’m not done yet. This is just the beginning.’” Your journey at CHOICE may be ending, but another Hero’s Journey is just beginning.  We are excited to watch you change the world like you have changed our lives.