Charline Martinez

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH:

In that picture is actually my daughter. Her name is Jayden. She's 13 and was in the Juneteenth parade. She's a Middies’ cheerleader for eighth grade. She made it this year. So she is a cheerleader now.   

I see a very strong young lady. She has come a long way. My daughter is asthmatic since she was about three years old. And she wasn't able to do a lot of things growing up, athletic wise. So she has accomplished a lot to make it this far. It means a lot to her. She tried last year, and she didn't make it. So she had a lot of different opinions of how she was going to make it or how she wasn't gonna make it. Me being a mom of four girls, I always teach my kids not to live with ‘what ifs,’ just to try it. If it doesn't happen, at least they could close that chapter in their life. 

So she tried this year. She practiced, and she ate healthier. She did her very best. And she made it, so I'm super, super proud of her. She shows Middie Pride because I think that Middletown has a lot of great potential. I think that Middletown has been known as not being a good place, but I think that it is a very strong community, and we have overcome so much over the years. Like my daughter. She overcame the fact that she was scared that her health wasn't where it needed to be last year, but she worked harder to make herself better. In the same way, Middletown has come from a lot of bad reputation and has built itself to be the great community that it is right now.