Dawnetta Chapman

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH:

I am from the Oakland Park area. My photo of Middie Pride actually says Middletown. Middie is in the background, and it's myself, my mother, two of my daughters, and one of the daughters is a senior in this picture. It is senior night for volleyball. Then a dear sister-friend of mine, we all have our Middie gear on.  

One thing that Middie Pride means to me is family. Because I grew up here in Middletown, my brothers and I all went to Middletown High School and graduated during the 90s. Then my children started going to Middletown City Schools. Then I have four Middletown high school graduates. So there are seven of us that have graduated from Middletown.

One of the things that many people don't know is that my daughter that's being honored on this night also has Type 1 diabetes. It has been a challenge for her to participate in lots of things, because we just have to prepare a lot more. I just really am appreciative of the staff, the faculty and even the doctors that have worked with us throughout the years, and the staff that has been very patient making sure that she was always safe, number one. Number two, that there weren't as many limitations on the things that she could do. She just had to find something that fit her needs and that she could excel in, whether it was academically or after school activity wise.

I definitely think Middie Pride needs to be defined for outsiders, people who don't live here or haven't lived here, haven't raised their families here, they need to know that even though we're kind of the halfway mark on 75 between Dayton and Cincinnati, that we do have some positive things going on, and we want to keep those positive things going.