Tuesday 24 november 2009
2
24
/11
/Nov
/2009
08:45
Hey everybody, it’s the fashion news from Wednesday, I’m not sure if this news relating with UGG Boots, but there’s talking
about UGGS. So,
keep reading.
Amy Berkley will be emotional as any proud parent when her two graduates pick up their Cumberland Valley High
School diplomas during Friday's commencement at the Giant Center in Hershey.
There are plenty of happy tears as Berkley describes the highlights of being with "her girls" from the first day of
classes last August to May's senior prom.
And the girls -- Denise Lammers, of Germany, and Debora Macedo, of Brazil, two of
Cumberland Valley's 20 exchange students -- will be sorry, too, when it's time to give their Hampden Township host mother a last hug and kiss.
"No one will truly understand the depth of our relationship," Berkley said.
Berkley grew up in Shippensburg and went to college there, too. She slaked
her thirst for travel and adventure with a post-high-school cross-country drive that filled her own mother with dread.
Now, she hosts exchange students who are making their own life's trek. Two students stayed with Berkley and her
husband, Mark, last summer. In the fall, two more will arrive.
The couple have two dogs but no children. Yet, their house has room for young visitors and Amy Berkley has time --
working part-time as a nurse -- to mother them.
Lammers and Macedo, both 17 and schooled in English, needed her after their first day at a big school filled with
fast-talking strangers.
"The first week was really hard with understanding the different accents," Lammers said.
She and Macedo used Berkley as a sounding board during refrigerator raids after school and sports
practice.
"Denise is my little athlete. Debbie is my social butterfly," Berkley said.
She let them paint and decorate their bedrooms and took them on trips to Colorado and California. She supplied them
with cell phones, laptop computers and fashion advice. Macedo needed coaxing to try UGG Boots and both
initially shunned jeans with artfully-placed rips, Berkley said.
The girls answered her generosity with school success. Both are honor roll students and Macedo was voted on to prom
court. Both girls say Berkley has become family to them and they'll stay in touch online after returning home.
"That's not even a question for us," Macedo said.
"I've seen the strength it's taken them to get through this program," Berkley said. As adults, we forget there's
millions of possibilities. There's a small window in their lives and I tell them to live it big."
