Superior Sun
The Superior Optimist Club takes pride in serving the needs of the children in the community. The Optimist Club was honored to present awards, metals and laptops to Superior High School Students who have earned these awards through the hard work at school. The Superior Unified School District foodservice and custodial staff assisted with a good and healthy Mexican meal in honor of Cinco de Mayo. The presence of the event was extremely well attended. Guest speakers gave encouragement and showed appreciation to the hard working students.
Guest speaker, Superior High School graduate, Christin Urquijo said, “Four years ago, I was in your place and received a laptop for being on the honor roll from the seventh grade to my senior year, speaking from experience a laptop is by far the most important tool for college. There isn’t a single day I don’t use my laptop.” Christin has attended college and is a graduate of the nursing program, she has been successful. Christin went on to say, “I would like to leave you with these words to think about strive to work hard at working smart.”
Andy Carrillo, Superior Class of 1970, owner of Andy Carillo Insurance Agency and marathon runner, had a once in a lifetime experience to share with the students. Last year Andy participated in the Boston Marathon after training for years and qualifying he was able to run. When running the marathon, he worked so hard to get there, he just wanted to enjoy the run. Andy said, “I was about 20 miles into the marathon coming up to a place known as ‘Heartbreak Hill’. I was kind of nervous about that and my daughter surprised me, took a subway out there I came around the corner and she ran up the hill with me then she got off the course to catch a ride and meet me at the finish line.” Andy went on to say, “I get into Boston and see the sign that says one mile to go, I am feeling good, go about another half mile and I heard this big boom an outrageously loud explosion and thought what is that. Shortly after that I heard another loud boom and then I started hearing sirens and they were headed to the same place I am,” he said. “I am still running and I can see the finish line, but at this time police officers were running towards me and I was the first guy they jumped in front of to stop. Then I was able to contact my daughter and she told me what happened. The whole town changed the next day.”
Andy went on and talked about his experiences growing up in Superior, he was happy to share with the students that Superior is a good place. He explained a little more about Boston the day after, “There were shirts everywhere that said Boston Strong which was saying to the terrorists that you can’t scare us.” Andy went on to say, “We will be back next year. This year there were 36,000 participants and over a million viewers. I wanted to talk to you about this experience.” Andy participated in the Boston Marathon again this year.
Andy concluded with, “Superior is a tough little town and inhabited by tough people. Just the fact that you grew up here makes you tougher than most people in the general population. Tough things happen everybody. Living here in Superior has made you tougher than you know. We are Superior Strong.”
It was an interesting evening and the students enjoyed being honored by their good grades and hard work throughout school. The Superior Optimist Club wishes the best for the students and success for all their future endeavors.