With You All the Way! at Bechtel Elementary in Japan

Woody Englander is a member of The Comfort Crew who tours with Trevor on the With You All the Way! Tour. Here are his thoughts about a recent visit to Bechtel Elementary School in Okinawa, Japan.

I believe we were on our 36^th presentation, our final presentation from our USO tour in Japan.

We spoke at every elementary school in the DODEA system in the pacific region. So it seemed fitting to have one of our most memorable moments happen in the last presentation.

Trevor had warmed the kids up with some stories and jokes. We played our movie montage, which the kids howl with laughter yet are able to reflect and relate to the characters, as they face the same issues as these kids do.

 

Now it was Stephanie’s turn to speak to the kids about her experience as a military child. She was discussing the fact that sometimes we bully other people when we are hurting inside. Sometimes we take out our frustration on others instead of taking care of our own feelings. She answered a couple of questions from kids before Paolo raised his hand. Paolo Francisco, a fifth grader at Bechtel Elementary School, stood up and said, “I have something to say.”  At that moment he walked up and nicely took the microphone from Stephanie. We have spoken to about 60,000 kids on this tour and this has never happened. Stephanie, was shocked, but smiled and stood next to Paolo. All of us were wondering what in the world was about to happen.

Paolo began to speak about a powerball.  We were all thinking, “Oh no!”   But then Paolo began explaining the powerball. He explained that he pretends that he gets hit by a magic powerball. The powerball gives him special powers to not let what a bully says bother him. Not only does the powerball give you power to fend off hurtful words of a bully, but the powerball  gives you the power to be nice to bullies and nice to other people.  Paolo went on for a while and then went back and sat in his spot on the floor.  We gave him a nice round of applause and Stephanie told him how proud she was of him.

My words aren’t quite doing justice to the event that took place. You had to be in the room to have seen Paolo’s face and experienced his courage to really appreciate what happened. Only a child could have given such a heartfelt and wonderful visual about treating people kindly and having the power to take care of yourself. In his words, he summarized what the With You All the Way tour is all about.

The Comfort Crew, The Trevor Romain Company and the USO, are all proud to have met Paolo Francisco and hope to share his message with military kids all around the world as we continue our tour. Thanks Paolo.