King of kindness

By: 
Jill Meier/Journal Editor

Queen Hannah Hendrick and King Carson Rowbotham will reign over BVHS’s 2017 Homecoming festivities. They were crowned at Monday night’s coronation ceremonies. Jill Meier/BV Journal

Donahoe gives up crown to special needs classmate
 
For a fleeting moment, Josh Donahoe was the king of Brandon Valley High’s 2017 homecoming.
And then the BVHS senior did something no one among the coronation crowd had anticipated. He unselfishly gave up the crown to his classmate and friend, Carson Rowbotham, a special needs student.
“I knew that Carson needed to be up there in the crown. It was something that was just a no-brainer for me,” Donahoe said. “The thing with Carson is, he is probably one of the most unselfish people I know and he’ll walk up to anybody, pretty much anybody and give them a hug, so he’s the type of person that needs to be homecoming king just to show people what kind of place Brandon Valley is.”
Hannah Headrick, who moments later was crowned queen of BV’s 2017 homecoming festivities, said she, too, was surprised by Donahoe’s unselfish act of kindness.
“Josh tried his best to get us all to vote for Carson, so I was pretty surprised when he got called up but I wasn’t surprised that he gave it up, because Josh is like that,” she said.
Donahoe said his heart began to race as his name was announced. And it was in that very moment that he decided to forego the crown.
“I walked up to Layne (Symington, 2016 BVHS homecoming king) and said, ‘I don’t want it. Can you give it to Carson?’ I told him, ‘I need you to give it to Carson.’”
The look on Symington’s face was one of complete confusion.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get yelled at by (BVHS Principal Dr. Gregg) Talcott or not, but at that point I didn’t care,” said Donahoe, who is president of the BVHS Best Buddies, a program designed to build friendships between kids with disabilities and peer buddies.
“It says a lot about Josh, obviously,” Talcott said. “Afterwards, Josh said, ‘I hope that was OK.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s absolutely OK.’”
Bob Rowbotham, Carson’s father, was awestruck by the gesture.
“I couldn’t believe he did it, it was probably the nicest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I don’t even know if words can express it. He’s overjoyed, I’m sure, but I’m not sure he knows what to think of it, but I know he likes it.”
The king’s brother, Connor, a 2016 BVHS graduate, was elated for Carson’s good fortune.
“I can’t believe he did that, it was very nice, very heartwarming,” he said. “All the support here is great, he has great teachers, great friends and it’s very heartwarming to see all the staff and students that support my brother.”
Talcott summed up this year’s coronation as “special.”
“It’s a special night and it’s nice that Josh made such a choice to do that. I think it shows what the real spirit of homecoming is supposed to be about. It’s not a contest about who wins what. It’s about a much bigger thing, and that includes trying to help out a family that’s in need, it’s just a little different, and this is the way homecoming is maybe supposed to be.”
This year’s homecoming royal court also included queen candidates Ally Boerhave, Faith Burch, Kaitlyn Gloege, Ellie Holmes and Megan Stettnichs. Max Howard, Jonas Kulzer, Nate Mutschelknaus and Eyob Nadew were among the king candidates.
Donations were also collected for Kaley Maassen and her family through the coronation tradition of giving. 

 

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