South Principal Jason Hussel struggled to maintain his composure, halting his speech as he looked at Darsh’s memorial plaque while hundreds of students sat on the floor watching him. Darsh’s parents, Pallavi and Himanshu Saxena, attended the ceremony. They tearfully hugged Hussel and joined the students during the balloon-releasing ceremony beside the Purple Prince Pear Tree planted for Darsh.
“I said I wasn’t going to get choked up and it’s too hard not to,” Hussel said after the ceremony. “It’s good to let the children know you’re human.”
He had many fond memories of Darsh.
“He was always excited to be here at school, always surrounded by a lot of friends. The boys and the girls in class always loved being around him, playing games with him on the playground,” he said.
Pamela Tierney, a representative of the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation, expressed her gratitude to the students during the assembly.
“I just wanted to thank each and every one of you — students, teachers and parents — and the community, who rallied together to do this wonderful fundraiser in memory of your friend Darsh … on behalf of the of the 300,000 other children in this country who live with arthritis, rest assured we will use this money to find a cure for this disease one day,” she said.
Lakeview Garden Center in Fairfield donated the tree. The school’s parent-teacher organization donated money for the plaque, created by Evelyn Place Monuments, which donated the base for the plaque, Hussel said.
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