Courageous students recognized

June 17, 2009

By Brenda Rader Mross
The Wellington

 

It has been four years since Wellington Junior High School gave out its first and only Courage Award.

The award originated out of the administration’s desire to honor the exceptional courage demonstrated by the late Nick Gaucher, a WJHS ninth-grader with cancer who inspired many.
The 2005 Courage Award went to Nick’s best friend, Nathan Cooley, in celebration of the courage it takes to be a friend through life and death. Nathan graduated from Poudre High School in 2008, along with many of Nick’s Wellington (Colorado) classmates.

This year, two ninth-graders won Courage Awards for the remarkable bravery they exhibited in the face of their own serious health issues. Johnathon Lumpkin has had brain cancer for six years, and Guillermo Orozco suffered a stroke earlier this year.

Wellington (Colorado) Principal Alicia Durand presented the awards to Johnathon and Guillermo in a ceremony held the day before the school year ended.

“We have not handed out a Courage Award in four years, not because other students didn’t demonstrate courage, but none demonstrated that special kind of courage — the courage it takes to stand tall despite life’s obstacles and work hard no matter what,” she said.

 

Durand, a fellow cancer survivor, described Johnathon as, “kind, considerate, and a fighter.”

 

“Johnathon struggles with pain on a daily basis and yet has walked in our Sudan Walk — 10 miles — all three years with us,” she noted. “If he can do it, we all can.”

 

While Johnathon is outgoing and often joking with adults and students at WJHS, Guillermo is quiet but equally resolute.

 

“Guillermo will do anything he wants to do because of his strong, unbending will,” Durand stated. “He will not feel sorry for himself, but he works constantly.”

 

According to Durand, the real story is that these two young men were extraordinary before the onset of their incredible physical challenges.
Johnathon already had cancer when his family enrolled him at Wellington as their school of choice — a decision that put the staff to the test.

 

“We were afraid to take Johnathon because we had just survived Nick Gaucher’s death,” Durand confessed. “But we knew that Johnathon belonged at WJHS. We didn’t need to worry: he shined with us!”
Calling Johnathon a standout for the junior high, Durand keyed in on the 15-year-old’s distinctive wit. His mother confirmed that funniness runs in the family.

 

“Our doctor told us, ‘Your family’s sense of humor got him where he is,’” said Stacey Procopio of her son’s battle against cancer that started in fourth grade.

 

Procopio said her then-9-year-old complained so often about having headaches that he was constantly doing couch time in the nurse’s office at Tavelli Elementary School. After 20-plus trips to various physicians, who were convinced Johnathon was “making it up,” five minutes with Dr. Patrick Arnold at Eye Center of Northern Colorado gave the family validation that something was wrong, perhaps dreadfully wrong.

 

“The very next day Johnathon was having what was supposed to be a three-hour surgery to remove a cyst,” remembered Procopio. “Ten hours later, we are hearing he has this fist-sized brain tumor.”
For the next 21 weeks, Johnathon was at Children’s Hospital, completely blind and screaming incessantly, in what Procopio termed a “black box coma.” Seven weeks of daily radiation followed by 52 weeks of chemotherapy left Johnathon practically lifeless.
“He had to relearn everything: how to blink, how to raise his arms,” his mother said. “When he got into a wheelchair, they didn’t think he’d walk again.”

 

Johnathon’s weight dropped to 43 pounds. Treatments left his skin jaundiced, but his attitude remained determined. Not only did he walk again, Johnathon played football during seventh and eighth grades. In fact, Procopio said the only time she saw Johnathon cry was last year when he learned he couldn’t play football at Poudre.
Guillermo so gets that.

 

This nearly 6-foot-2-inch wide receiver had a great debut on the gridiron for the Impalas. When asked about hobbies, Guillermo replied, “Just football.” His mother Denise Orozco verified that her son’s favorite thing to do — besides playing football — is watching reruns of classic games.

 

Durand said Guillermo was a quiet, athletic young man before that mid-January day when he told friends at lunch he had a headache and collapsed.

 

“When we got him in the hallway and I held his hand waiting for the ambulance to come, I hoped that Guillermo would be able to participate in football at Poudre,” recalled Durand. “That’s all he was waiting for after a successful season as a freshman. He loves football, and he loves Poudre.”

 

Guillermo will have surgery again this summer, but he continues to study at home and plans on suiting up for PHS.

 

“Guillermo was born with a massive tangled artery in the brain that caused the stroke,” his mother explained. “Some live all their lives with it. Guillermo had been to an allergy specialist because of headaches, but we had no idea.”

 

Then Denise Orozco got the phone call every parent fears: “Your son passed out and is on his way to the hospital.”

 

Guillermo remains paralyzed on his right side, but feeling is returning in his face and arms. Orozco credits the positive attitude of her “angel baby” and only son — Guillermo wasn’t planned and has four sisters — for his relatively quick recovery.

 

“He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t eat or go to the bathroom,” she said. “I’m grateful now for silly things like him putting his shirt on.”

 

Durand doesn’t doubt both young men will transition well to Poudre and beyond.

 

“Johnathon and Guillermo have taught us so much about patience, perseverance and never underestimating the will of a human being,” she said.

 

In return, the mothers praised Durand and WJHS but agreed the road to recovery has been hard.

 

“Guillermo went from Mr. Popular to having no friends at all,” Orozco said.

 

Procopio wishes people would “quit talking to Johnathon likes he’s 5. He’s slower, but he’s not unintelligent.”

 

Johnathon said this about Nick Gaucher’s brand of courage: “He just kept on going even though he knew he was going to die.”

 

About confronting his own death, Johnathon said: “Cool! Now I’ll get to see what Jesus really looks like!”

 

Procopio said her son’s two inoperable tumors will not prevent him from attending Poudre. Rather, he’s learning Braille and how to use a cane, something he joked will remain in his locker at all times.

 

The Orozco family lives near the Gauchers in Wellington (Colorado). Guillermo thinks Nick would want to be remembered “as just another kid.”