Last night, Manassas residents graduated from the third class of the Manassas City Public Schools’ Parent & Community Leadership Academy.
The graduation was held at the Center for the Arts at the Candy Factory.
During the ceremony, surprise keynote speaker and founder of non-profit Comfort Cases Robert Scheer spoke about his experiences as a homeless teenager in the City of Manassas, and how he took in four foster children and started his organization to help others in the foster system.
Scheer recently gained a lot of media attention for his cause after Upworthy filmed a segment on him and his family, and he made an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres TV show.
“My journey started right here in Prince William County. Most people don’t realize that but I went to Loch Lomond Elementary School, I want to Parkside Middle School, and I graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School. I was also a homeless teenager that used to sleep right over there…so when I walked across that [high school graduation] stage, I decided that I wasn’t going to be the statistic that you all thought I should be…I was going to show you that as a community that I had not given up on you, and I was going to make something of myself,” said Scheer.
In his remarks, Scheer urged the graduates of the program to step up and use their talents and trainings to help “invisible” people in the community that were just like him.
Aditya Ashoka, Angela Gorman, Jane James, Michael Kunzer, Erika Laos, Nora Lopez, Jhenny Michalek, Karen O’Malley, Maria Ordinola, Helen Sorto, Ivan Soto, Luz Soto, Mark Townsend, and Rebekah Wehner were all recognized and celebrated for completing the academy.
