Hensley-NamowiczChristmas Concert |
CHICAGO, May 24 -- The
day after they graduated with their 23 classmates of the
Mooseheart High School Class of 2009, Heather Sheere Hensley
and Marco Antonio Namowicz came to the Sheraton Chicago
Hotel and put lumps in the throats of 4,000 attendees at
the 121st International Convention of the Moose fraternity.
Both spoke emotionally of the crucial difference that
coming to Mooseheart had made in their young lives.
Heather Hensley spoke eloquently
of the second chance at life given to her by Moose members
in Arkansas who had steered her away from a home life
of drug-abuse and neglect, at age 15, to Mooseheart,
where she experienced structure, discipline, and responsible
caregivers for the first time in her life. She
will be heading to the Honors Program at Aurora (IL)
University, thanks in part to a $24,000 scholarship from
the Arkansas Moose Association.
Then, Marco Namowicz told delegates,
in his soft-spoken manner, of growing up since the age
of 6 at Mooseheart -- and finding a way of life in music,
under the tutelage of Mooseheart Band Director Steve
Schmidt. Marco
has developed a talent with the clarinet that earned him
a full scholarship at Chicago's DePaul University.
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