Each four-legged participant dons a yellow and blue vest with the words, “Future Service Dog.” They are part of Canine Companions, a national organization founded in 1975 that raises and trains service dogs.

Canine Companions breeds golden and Labrador retrievers or a mix of them at its Santa Rosa, California, headquarters. At 8 weeks old, the puppies are sent to spend 18 months with puppy raisers, who are responsible for basic training, socialization, food and veterinary care. The dogs then move to professional training to learn to assist adults and children with physical or mental disabilities; they might also work with a professional in an education, health care or visitation setting.

“This animal is going to impact somebody’s life and give them independence that they’ve never had,” volunteer Peter Aiello said. Aiello and his wife, Kathleen, are raising their second dog, Sidney, with friends from their church.

The volunteers and dogs are in the Old Dominion chapter, which spans Farmville to Virginia Beach. Class leader and puppy raiser Leslie Neely began hosting classes in Williamsburg almost a year and a half ago as a central spot. The classes are designed around eight elements.

In one class on body awareness, grooming practices and distractions, the dogs are walked through a cluster of volunteers who simulate strangers the service dog might encounter. In another part of the room, Neely’s husband stood with their untrained family dog and the future service dogs had to resist engaging — with the group and the dog.

“When you have a service dog, you want every predictable element to be there,” said Neely, who joined the organization in 2007 when her daughter became deaf and needed a service dog in college.

Neely hosts at least one monthly outing for the dogs, and they’ve explored Colonial Williamsburg, William & Mary’s campus and Norfolk International Airport.

The puppy raisers are people who are new to the program and others who have gone through the experience a handful of times.

Mackenzie Sherman, a first-timer, is a junior at Longwood University. She became involved through the Service-Dog Training and Education Program at Longwood, STEP@LU.

Sherman’s dog, Acton, attended his first class on June 2. His vest fit loosely over his fur and he could barely contain his excitement around the toys that were scattered around the room for them to play.

“I’m excited for him to be on campus and to learn all the things, and I feel like he’s going to grow a lot living there,” Sherman said. Acton lives with her on campus.

Courtney Bennis and her mom, Pam, began raising future service dogs when Bennis was 5 years old. Bennis, now 37, has trained 11 canines with her mom. Bennis teaches at Cox High School in Virginia Beach and said her students love it when she brings Griffin, her current dog, to school. Griffin only has two more months with the Bennises before receiving six to nine months of professional training in one of six regional centers.

“You always know it’s not your dog,” Bennis said. Her first was later paired with a 17-year-old with cerebral palsy. That knowledge makes saying goodbye easier.

“He can change somebody else’s life in ways that I can’t understand.”

After professional training, the canines are paired based on their strengths and abilities. For example, a good fetcher could aid someone who needs a dog to bring them items. Dogs that are not suited for service work are released for adoption. Graduation ceremonies — when the dogs are officially paired with their “forever person” — are especially emotional for puppy raisers.

Bennis has attended five graduations and her canines always remember her, she said. Bennis stays connected; sometimes, she receives Christmas cards or follows the dogs on social media.

Debbie Baker, who raised nine puppies for two organizations over the last 17 years, agreed that the graduations are heartwarming.

“You’re handing over the leash to someone whose life you’re changing,” she said. “That brings me back time after time: ‘What else can you do that you can make that kind of an impact on someone else that you don’t know?’”

Email klaiello13@gmail.com or neelyadventure@gmail.com for more information.

Evelyn Davidson, ejwdavidson@gmail.com

In her opening remarks, Warhill Principal Michele Newcomb noted that 51 of the 310 students graduating received scholarships totaling nearly $7 million. Three students completed the WJCC Honors Program: Ava Kendall Boyer, Ellen Renee Gulden and Joshua Lawrence Markle. All three students took Advanced Placement classes, did community service and conducted an honors project as part of the program.

“You’ve demonstrated remarkable determination, adapting to new ways of learning, supporting one another and holding fast to your dreams,” Newcomb told the Class of 2024 graduates, calling their high school journey “anything but ordinary.”

Student speaker Patricia Nakhumicha Khisa led off her speech in her native language of Swahili.

“By the looks of your faces, I can tell most of you probably didn’t understand what I just said, so let me rephrase it,” Khisa joked.

Khisa reflected on the challenges of virtual learning amid the pandemic and related their perseverance to a whack-a-mole game.

“Every time we managed to lift our heads, life’s challenges pushed us down,” she said.

The world has conditioned people to view failure as the end, Khisa explained, but failure paves way for future successes.

“Don’t see failure as an obstacle, but rather as a stepping stone to all the good things that lie ahead of you,” she said.

Khisa shared the struggles she faced upon moving to the U.S. from a developing country and having to adjust to a different education system.

“I stand before you as the living proof that failure is not the end, but rather the beginning of something much greater,” Khisa said.

The class valedictorian and salutatorian were Joshua Markle and James Grappe, respectively. Both graduates will be pursuing degrees from the University of Virginia.

“The community of Warhill has acted as the scarecrow, the tinman and the lion, providing us all with the knowledge, passion and courage we need to succeed,” student speaker Cassidy Nicole Lee said.

Lee likened the class’ journey to “The Wizard of Oz” movie, in which everyone has their own personal yellow brick road that will always lead them home.

“The lion taught us that you don’t have to be fearless, because doing it afraid is just as great,” Lee said.

The school’s lion mascot, Lee said, acted as a constant reminder to have the courage and bravery to take a leap of faith.

“There are going to be times in our future where we lose that sense of direction and the cracks in the pavement seem too big to overcome,” Lee said. “So we must always remember that every failure is a building brick that creates that yellow brick road of triumph.”

In her closing speech, Newcomb told the new graduates to remember that the connections they forged at Warhill were more than just memories.

“They are the foundation of a lifelong support system,” she said, “a source of strength and inspiration as you navigate the world beyond these walls.”

Evelyn Davidson, ejwdavidson@gmail.com

Principal Howard Townsend IV welcomed the 287 graduates, acknowledging the more than $5 million in scholarships that were awarded to 58 seniors. He also recognized 10 WJCC Honors Program recipients, who each conducted unique academic honors projects, did community service and took Advanced Placement courses.

Mia Meadows, who will attend the University of North Carolina, was valedictorian, and Luke Xavier Pelletier, who will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was salutatorian.

In his speech to the graduating class, Pelletier shared how his honors project provided him with a “unique perspective.” Pelletier hosted his own podcast, in which he interviewed members of Jamestown High in an effort to “paint a picture” and demonstrate how the pandemic affected their high school experience.

“What emerged from these conversations, however, was a testament to our resiliency in the face of adversity,” Pelletier said.

The Class of 2024 missed out on many traditions, he noted, but they also found new ways to connect and support each other.

“Always search for positives in a negative circumstance,” Pelletier said, emphasizing the importance of embracing change, “the power of community” and perseverance.

Change is the only constant in life, Hayden Matthew Petry told his fellow graduates. Petry grew up in a military family and found himself moving around a lot. Petry recalled struggling to make and keep friends as he moved from Texas to Japan to Tennessee.

“Whenever we go through the slightest bit of change or inconvenience in life, we switch into this victim-like mindset and spend our time complaining about the problems around us,” he said.

This mindset causes people to miss the good that’s right in front of them, Petry said, but it only takes a little digging to find the silver lining.

“Instead of being reluctant to change, we should embrace it with open arms and a receptive mind,” he said. “Instead of viewing change as the end of the road, view it as more of a bend in the path.”

“Your future will only be as good as you perceive it,” Petry added.

The senior class officers presented the senior class gift — landscaping and mulch for the inner courtyard at the high school.

The impact of each student’s time and actions, Townsend said, is evident in the 44 championships, the honors students and the number of National Merit commended students.

“Time is a resource, but patience is a virtue,” Townsend said, reminding students that standing still or taking the time to think is not time wasted.

He assured the Class of 2024 that they will not have all the answers, nor do they need to. He concluded his remarks with a quote from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” he said. “Let’s go to work.”

Evelyn Davidson, ejwdavidson@gmail.com

Following the processional and the traditional strains of “Pomp and Circumstance,” Principal Paul A. Rice welcomed guests and the 292 graduating seniors.

“You’ve worked hard to achieve great things during your high school tenure,” Rice said, also thanking parents and family for their “partnership” and “support” of the graduates.

Thirty students within the graduating class received a total of more than $2.5 million in scholarships this year.

Rice recognized two students for completing the WJCC Honors Program, which requires the completion of Advanced Placement courses, a community service project and an honors project.

As president of Model UN, Emily Arden Reynolds founded the first UN high school conference in the area. Reynolds will attend William & Mary for a degree in government.

Fellow honors recipient and class president David Christian Schniepp combined his passion for STEM and filmmaking in order to produce a stop motion documentary on brown recluse spiders. Schniepp will go on to major in engineering at the University of Virginia.

Rice also recognized Gabriel Rosen-Turits as valedictorian with a 4.5 grade point average and Braden Lee as salutatorian with a 4.394 GPA.

Student commencement speaker Nina Laura Gokita recalled moving with her mom and brother from Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. She felt homesick and missed her father, but was welcomed into the community “with open arms.”

“Some of you may be the first in your families to graduate high school or even go to college … but this is what makes our school, our school,” said Gokita, noting the diverse culture and history at Lafayette.

Moving on to a new chapter is intimidating, she continued, encouraging her fellow graduates to “dream big.”

“Hold those dreams dear to your heart and push yourself to achieve them,” Gokita said.

Regardless of what’s to come — college, a gap year, entering the workforce — you have a purpose, student commencement speaker JaZiyah McKenzie Davis told her peers.

“There is no such thing as a life that’s better than yours,” Davis continued, quoting singer J. Cole’s “Love Yourz.”

Joking that he has yet to write a memorable graduation speech, Rice said he turned to ChatGPT for inspiration, sharing the beginning of a graduation speech in wrestler Ric Flair and Yoda’s voices.

“Challenges face you will, fear leads to the dark side,” he said, evoking laughter from the graduates and their families.

Lafayette is one of the best high schools in Virginia because of the students, said Rice, before sharing some life lessons with the Class of 2024.

Rice encouraged the students of Lafayette to take accountability in all that they do, sharing his favorite quote: “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” He also reminded them to work hard, but to take care of themselves.

“You need to be the one who writes your life story,” Rice said, advising the graduating class to not let others control who they are. “Don’t let your life story be autofilled.”

Evelyn Davidson, ejwdavidson@gmail.com

This year, the Virginia Humanities will assist Parham in her latest goal: showing her students how Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era led to a new Black reform movement.

Parham is one of seven recipients of the Virginia Humanities’ 2024 K-12 Educator Fellowship. The fellowship aims to support educators in the development of two lesson plans that meet the Virginia Standards of Learning and will be accessible to other educators on the Virginia Humanities Education website.

“Having this opportunity is going to help me, not just as a historian, but as a teacher,” said Parham, who will spend the next nine months curating these lesson plans. “Because this will allow me to create learning experiences for other teachers across the state.”

Students are often taught about the failures of the Reconstruction era, explained Parham, but not the resulting push for equality by Black American activists, such as Ida B. Wells. As an educator fellow, Parham aims to create a lesson plan that sheds light on this movement, particularly on Black historical figures from Virginia and its neighboring states.

In addition, Parham and her students will continue engaging in place-based learning by examining the Green Book, a traveler’s guide for Black individuals that was popularized in the Jim Crow South and identifies locations in Virginia where Black Americans could safely travel.

“There’s so much history in our country, especially in our state,” Parham said. “There’s only so much that’s fit and approved in a textbook, and that’s where I’m hoping that I can fill in that gap.”

She will spend the summer crafting an “inquiry design module” for her unit on Reconstruction. This module will allow for a more interactive experience, in which students lead their own learning. Her second lesson plan will be project-based: Students will create a story map based on the Green Book and draw connections to the historical contexts of specific locations.

Parham will receive a stipend, along with funding for supplies and research, from the Virginia Humanities. She will also work with other educator fellows to create a professional development experience.

Parham has taught social studies at Jamestown High School for six years, including world history, world geography and African American history. In addition, she is team coach of the Junior Varsity Scholastic Bowl and co-sponsor of the African American Heritage 365 Scholastic Bowl.

Parham previously served as president of the Williamsburg-James City Education Association for three years, and currently serves as a district president on the Virginia Education Association Board of Directors.

“I’ve always had a natural connection with history,” said Parham, who graduated from Virginia State University with a history degree, received her master’s in curriculum and instruction from William & Mary and went on to student-teach at Hornsby Middle School.

Parham traces her fascination with history back to the fourth grade, when her mother’s friend, a museum curator, showed Parham some Egyptian artifacts.

Ever since, Parham has been eager to soak up as much historical knowledge as she can — from European to American, Native American and African American history — her interest continued to grow.

“Education is a very strong foundation in my family,” said Parham, whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were all educators.

Despite coming from a long line of educators, Parham said that she didn’t discover her love for teaching until she had an opportunity to lead a class review lesson in the eighth grade. The experience solidified teaching as her career path — the rest is history.

Today, at Jamestown High School, Parham works with her students to consider why historical events occurred, challenging them to look at how the past can inform the future. This approach is a part of her desire to promote a “holistic understanding” of history.

There’s never a dull moment in the classroom, Parham said, because her students always ask questions that deepen their knowledge and open up a larger discussion.

“If they feel that they can be open and honest with me and want to share their opinion, then they’re open to hearing other opinions,” said Parham, whose main goal as an educator is to provide her students with a safe space for learning and engaging in civil discourse.

When asked what gets her students excited to learn about history, Parham pointed to the field trips that actively engage her students in the content they’re learning. Her class takes trips to Fort Monroe and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

Parham also attributes her students’ eagerness to learn about history to her open honesty, passion and care.

“Her love of the content is infectious to them,” said Jamestown High School’s lead social studies teacher Molly Sandling, referring to Parham’s “energy” and “enthusiasm.”

Parham noted her students’ excitement for the Advanced Placement African American studies class, which she will teach for the first time in the upcoming fall semester, as another testament to the bond she has with them.

“It really shows how far I’ve grown as a teacher,” she said. “How much the students trust me with their learning, and the trust they have to take this course.”

Williamsburg-James City County Schools first began offering African American history in the 2021-22 school year and African American literature in the 2023-24 school year, but next fall will be the first time that AP African American studies will be offered for all WJCC high schools. The course was offered as part of a pilot program this year in 700 schools across 40 states.

Evelyn Davidson, ejwdavidson@gmail.com

“Sweet Ole’ Williamsburg,” created by the resort’s executive chef, includes 17 different candy and icing adorned gingerbread houses and a toy train that runs along a circular track through the village.

The display, which is made up of 1,200 pounds of powdered sugar, 500 pounds of assorted candy and 150 pounds of gingerbread, was unveiled Nov. 22 and will remain open for viewing at Kingsmill Resort through the first week of January. Members and guests are welcome to visit.

Chef Mark Florimonte’s gingerbread creations are modeled after classic Williamsburg-area landmarks, such as William & Mary’s Zable Stadium, the Prime Outlets, a Ferris wheel inspired by Busch Gardens and a candy brick replica of the ice rink in Colonial Williamsburg.

The entire holiday village took nearly 220 hours for Florimonte and his team of volunteers to build and decorate. It’s the second year he’s created the display for Kingsmill, a resort complex and residential community in James City County.

“The part I enjoy the most is the ability to be creative and do whatever I want,” said Florimonte, who has been making gingerbread displays for 23 years. “There is no golden rule on how it should look or how it should be.”

Florimonte used a wide variety of sweets in his gingerbread village, including gumdrops, candy corn, peppermints, jelly beans, Hershey Kisses, chocolate-covered pretzels, lollipops and marshmallows. The village can be found in the main building’s lobby, next to a large television that on one recent visit was running holiday movies. A sign near the display offers some details about the village with a warning not to touch because “Santa is watching.”

In the past, Florimonte has designed and constructed gingerbread replicas of famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon. His creations have been displayed in several places around the country, including in New York City and Atlanta.

Florimonte first began gingerbread making to raise money for the March of Dimes, a nonprofit that focuses on the health and safety of mothers and their babies. This was a cause that he held close to his heart because his own daughter was born prematurely and in a neonatal intensive care unit at the time.

“Sweet Ole’ Williamsburg” will hopefully be a “memory and a moment” for families to share together, said Florimonte, who recalled one family that had made it a tradition to see the Kingsmill gingerbread village each holiday season.

Evelyn Davison, evelyn.davidson.20@cnu.edu

Does the 9-year-old consider herself a Swiftie?

“Yes! Definitely!” she said, hopping up and down beside the concession stand at The Regal Columbus movie theater in Virginia Beach.

Ava is one of the legions of fans expected to turn out this weekend for the opening of Swift’s highly anticipated movie. The concert film, scheduled for release Friday, came out a day early because of unprecedented demand. Box office analysts predict it could generate as much as $150 million during its debut weekend, a figure that would make it the highest opening of a concert film and also one of the highest openings of 2023, according to CNBC.

The pop star and style icon has been a musical and marketing powerhouse since her 2006 debut at age 16. She’s won 12 Grammy Awards and sold more than 13 million albums in multiple genres. 

Yet her fans — Swifties — say her real genius is how she connects with people.

“She’s the older sister I don’t have,” said Savannah Stamper, 26, of Virginia Beach. “I feel like I’ve grown up with her.” 

Decked out in Taylor Swift bracelets, shirt, sunglasses and sparkly eye makeup, Drew Johnson went to the movie with three other women, including her kids’ babysitter.

“I think because I’m close in age. When she was 15 writing, it was similar to what I was going through. And then we kind of aged together,” said Johnson, 29, who lives in Poquoson and was catching the movie at Cinemark City Center in Newport News.

“As she’s grown up, her lyrics, I think, they’re more intricate than people think.”

When Shelby Kline and Dylann Reilly heard the movie would be released a day early, they made sure to be at the first showing. 

“I watched the trailer on the way here just to get hyped up,” Kline, 26, said. 

The movie is a compilation of Swift’s three performances in Los Angeles from her current tour, which has been selling out venues across the world and breaking stadium records. When tickets went on sale last fall, the Ticketmaster site crashed, sparking fierce backlash from fans, a rebuke from Swift and a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which lawmakers used the songwriter’s lyrics to make their case.

Reilly, 17, had a presale code when tickets went on sale and waited for seven or eight hours online. The show sold out right before her turn.

The movie is as close as she can get to the real T-Swift, at least for now.

“I think it’s really cool that she’s doing this because a lot of people didn’t get to see her perform,” said Kline, who compared the concert movie with the film version of the popular Broadway hit “Hamilton” in terms of making it available to the wider public.

Hailee Morse and Katie Hayden got lucky. They both saw Swift in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Literally the best thing of my life,” Morse, 25, said, despite a storm that delayed the show by four hours.

Alexandra Carter joined the fun at Cinemark. She was excited to share the experience with her 4-year-old daughter.

“It’s fun seeing it in her eyes,” she said. “She just gets really excited.”

Carter, 35, said she’s been a fan since the beginning.

“Her music is very relatable. She just makes it easy to like her.”

On Thursday, the public-private nonprofit will celebrate 30 years of serving the Williamsburg, James City County and York County areas.

The center’s mission is simple: “to provide quality, cost-effective, coordinated and preventative primary health care to clients, regardless of ability to pay.”

Take Urbanna resident Aremi Reyes, who recently traveled an hour from the Middle Peninsula just to receive care at Olde Towne.

Reyes heard about the center from friends and goes for services such as checkups and mammograms. She doesn’t speak English, but the center has volunteer translators and some of the staff are bilingual.

Patients also come from other areas in Virginia, including New Kent County and Newport News.

Aaron Thompson, who has been executive director of the center since 2020, explained what it’s like to walk through the center’s lobby and see patients who have been denied service at other places.

The elation of people who have suffered and finally received care, Thompson said, makes his nearly hourlong commute to work all worth it.

Since its opening in 1993, Olde Towne has grown from a few rooms to half of the building that also houses the James City County Department of Social Services.

The center has around 44 full-time and part-time employees, as well as 35-40 volunteers. This includes five nurse practitioners, an optometrist and a dental director.

Some of the volunteers are specialists, such as cardiologists, neurologists and physiatrists, who work at other practices but volunteer their time at Olde Towne.

Services offered include in-house labs, immunization clinic and prenatal care. The center will have seen around 4,000 individual patients this year.

For funding, the center holds fundraisers, has private donors and receives jurisdictional grants. It works closely with James City County. For instance, Olde Towne is responsible for the pre-employment screening of James City County employees.

The center also receives income from serving its patients.

“We have the belief that no one is ever turned away, regardless of ability to pay,” Thompson said.

However, Olde Towne is not a free clinic, Thompson pointed out. Rather, it works on a sliding scale based on the patient’s income. It works with uninsured, underinsured, Medicare, Medicaid and many commercial health insurance providers.

For Stephanie Betancourt, of Williamsburg, Olde Towne is like a lifesaver.

Betancourt said she didn’t get approved for Medicaid and was struggling to find a new primary care physician. Many places required a monthlong wait for an appointment, but Betancourt couldn’t risk waiting that long. She had previously visited the emergecy room for abdominal pain and was worried that she might be experiencing complications from an intrauterine device.

She recently was able to schedule an appointment at Olde Towne, and said the staff worked hard to get as much done in one appointment as possible so she wouldn’t have to schedule multiple return appointments.

“It gave me a lot of peace of mind,” said Betancourt, who feared that she might have cervical cancer.

Olde Towne is also the only provider of adult dental Medicaid in the area, so it has a long waiting list of patients. It currently has four operatories in the dental suite. Thompson hopes to hire a part-time dentist, as well as a full-time dental hygienist from Virginia Peninsula Community College.

During the pandemic, the center continued to serve its community, only shutting down for 10 days. In order to care for patients’ safely, the center established a telemedicine program in which it had designated treatment rooms and curbside visits.

“It was phenomenal that they were able to pivot as quickly and seamlessly as they did,” Thompson said.

The pandemic also sparked a deeper focus on integrated care, a combination of primary care and behavioral health.

Olde Towne partners with Bacon Street Youth and Family Counseling and received a grant from Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center to help start their integrated care model.

When it comes to expanding the center, Thompson wants add more providers, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. He also wants Olde Towne to become a federally qualified health care center in the future.

Moving forward, Thompson hopes to make more people within the community aware of the services and resources that Olde Towne can offer. Those who use the center say the services are invaluable.

“We are so grateful for the care at Olde Towne,” the wife of a patient wrote in a “success story” shared on the center’s social media pages. “They treat us like family. The providers there truly have a calling and we are so glad they care for folks like us.”

The center will celebrate its 30th Anniversary Gala on Sept. 30 at the Williamsburg Lodge. The fundraiser helps support the underserved populations of greater Williamsburg that depend on Olde Towne for their health needs. For information on tickets sponsorships, visit www.otmdc.org.

“We’re very excited to have both of them and just learn from their experience,” said Galina Yordanova, founder, owner and program director of Dreams Gymnastics Center in Toano.

Ohashi and Thomas, who will visit July 21 from 3:30-8:30 p.m., have done similar clinics across the country. Yordanova said she hopes to have gymnasts from other centers travel to Dreams for the event.

Gymnasts who raise $250 for the gym will have the opportunity to participate in clinics with the athletes as well as a Q&A session led by Ohashi and Thomas. They will also be able to take photos and receive autographs.

Raising more money will lead to other prizes for the gymnasts, and the top fundraisers will get to attend a private lunch and clinic with Ohashi and Thomas.

The money raised through the fundraiser will be used to buy new gymnastics equipment for Dreams.

This will be Ohashi’s first time visiting the Williamsburg area for a clinic. The 26-year-old athlete made her mark in the gymnastics world as a four-time USA Gymnastics’ Junior National Team member, the 2013 American Cup all-around champion and a NCAA team champion.

Ohashi went viral on social media in 2019 for her perfect 10 floor routine with the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team, which she participated in from 2016-2019. The top 30 fundraisers from the Dreams gym will get to learn that viral floor routine.

Thomas was a four-time National Team member and competed at the collegiate level with the Florida Gators at the the University of Florida. She was the 2022 NCAA Gymnast of the Year and hopes to make the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team.

“You want to see that these are real people,” Yordanova said.

Having Ohashi and Thomas visit gives kids a chance to see the opportunities that could be available for them, she said. “That’s why we’re called Dreams, because anyone can have dreams.”

Yordanova came with her husband, Pavlin, from Eastern Europe to the U.S., where they have been for more than 20 years. They have lived in Williamsburg for 10 years, and Dreams has been open since 2018.

The Dreams coaches want their gymnasts to see that Ohashi and Thomas have overcome the obstacles in their paths and that big dreams can be achieved.

“It takes a lot of dedication, and it’s not overnight,” Yordanova said.

One member of Dreams,12-year-old Lizzy Boller, has been doing gymnastics since she was 2 years old. She said she hopes to one day become as skilled as Ohashi and Thomas.

When asked how the two NCAA gymnasts inspire her, Lizzy called them brave and said they give off this special energy that inspires her to do stuff that she’s never done before.

Ohashi and Thomas’s energy is contagious — not every performer can do what they do, said Lizzy’s mom, Nadia.

Thomas and Ohashi will travel to six different states over the summer, participating in similar clinics for young gymnasts.

It’s interesting to see how different the kids are, Ohashi said during a recent phone interview. After spending all day with them, they start to come out of their shells and ask unique questions.

The whole point is to inspire the kids and give them tips that they can carry with them, even beyond gymnastics, Ohashi said.

“We talk to them all day about triumphs and joy and goals,” she said.

In the past, young gymnasts just wanted to go to the Olympics, said manager Jim Lucas, owner of LR Productions. Now, college is a viable path for gymnasts.

Lucas pointed out that Thomas and Ohashi inspire those who look up to them by demonstrating that it is possible to be a successful gymnast at the collegiate level.

For more information about the fundraiser and visit, visit lsiweb.org/DreamsWithKatelyn.com/.

Nate has cerebral palsy, which affects mobility in his legs and requires that he use a wheelchair. His goal of walking on crutches has not been an easy achievement, as he encountered many setbacks in the process. Despite hip surgery in 11th grade and even having to miss school to travel to South Carolina for treatment, Nate graduated on June 10 with almost a 4.0 grade point average, received highest honors every year and an advanced diploma.

“It’s just amazing,” said his dad, Cliff Lambright, who became teary eyed and emotional while reflecting on his son’s perseverance.

With the encouragement of his parents and Samantha Marsh, his physical therapist at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, the York County teen spent two months practicing on crutches for an hour every week.

“It took a village,” he said.

Marsh would set up a walkway and even a cheering section, while Nate would put on his cap and gown and practice walking across the stage.

On the big day, at Hampton Coliseum, Nate walked to receive his diploma with Marsh by his side. To his surprise, he received an outpouring of support from his fellow graduates, who gave him a standing ovation.

“I was nervous,” he said. “But when everybody stood up, I just felt pure adrenaline and joy.”

It was a special moment for Nate’s parents, watching from the audience as their son walked across the stage with his fellow classmates cheering him on.

“It was a very emotional thing to see him accomplish what he did,” said his mom, Kim Lambright.

In his free time, Nate enjoys playing video games and watching football. He plans to attend two years of community college and then transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a degree in graphic design to make video games.

When asked about other future plans, Nate said he wants to become more independent and live life to the fullest.

Evelyn Davidson, evelyn.davidson@virginiamedia.com