Yesterday, City Spring EMS Student Chelsea Gilmer and Principal Rhonda Richetta met First Lady Michelle Obama at a rally in Baltimore's War Memorial Building. Principal Richetta talks about this once-in-a-lifetime experience below:
Chelsea and I had an amazing time! Chelsea had an experience that she will not only remember for the rest of her life, but one that inspired her in a HUGE way. She heard very moving speeches from not only Michelle Obama, but from a very long list of local politicians.
We were standing right up front, and when Michelle Obama started moving through the crowd, she reached out to shake my hand and I asked her to talk to Chelsea.
She grabbed Chelsea's face in her hands and said "everything we do is for you."
I selected Chelsea to attend because she is interested in public speaking (she is one of our top debaters) and wants to be a lawyer and a State's Attorney when she grows up.
As we were walking back to school, Chelsea looked up to the sky and said, "that was great! I am so inspired!" I think it was about equal to how much I was inspired at that moment by Chelsea. She was right, it was great!
I want to thank City Springs teachers Patrick Cero and Zachary Carey for having a conversation with Chelsea about what it means to be a republican vs. a democrat. She listened intently to every person's speech and identified the key things they said that were characteristic of a democrat.
It was awesome for me to witness her applying the learning she had just experienced from a conversation with two teachers. Kudos, Mr. Cero and Mr. Carey!In addition to the First Lady, speakers at the rally included Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, Governor Martin O’Malley, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Ben Cardin, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, Congressman John Sarbanes, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Council President Jack Young.
We would like to thank Brooke Lierman for providing tickets to the rally.
