Nicole Steiger, Rehoboth Christian’s Pre-K director, watched the parade from the school’s campus. Then came a pickup with high school seniors Madison Anderson, Eden Pikaart, Stacie Skeet and Maggi Van Drunen a school bus ferrying this year’s excited Pre-K graduates a fire truck and Rehoboth Christian executive director Bob Ippel driving his truck. The parade honored Rehoboth Christian’s Early Childhood Center, the 4-year-olds graduating from the Pre-K program into kindergarten, the four Rehoboth High seniors who were members of the original Pre-K class of 2009 and the memory of Christopher Johnson.Ī police car with lights flashing and sirens wailing led the way, followed by bikers from various motorcycle clubs and a truck pulling a trailer carrying the Johnsons and the Pre-K program’s first teachers, Suzanne Breithaupt and Christine Teller-Skeets. Wednesday in the parking lot of the Red Rock Theater and proceeded the short distance down Church Rock Road to the Rehoboth Christian campus. Seated next to Chuck is Steve Breithaupt, Suzanne’s husband. In front, from right, are Mary Johnson, Chuck’s wife and the Pre-K program’s original teachers, Christina Teller-Skeets and Suzanne Breithaupt. (Chancey Bush/Albuquerque Journal) Chuck Johnson, left, waves during a parade celebrating Rehoboth Christian School’s Pre-K program. The four seniors were members of Rehoboth Christian’s first Pre-K class in 2009. Rehoboth Christian High graduating seniors, from left, Eden Pikaart, Stacie Skeet, Madison Anderson and Maggi Van Drunen ride in the back of a truck during a parade Wednesday in Rehoboth. Blessing has come out of tragedy.” On paradeĪs parades go, it might not have matched up to Macy’s storied Thanksgiving spectacle or Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses promenade, but it was a pretty big deal in Rehoboth. But generations of school children will benefit because of it. “In the throes of grief, we couldn’t see anything good coming out of Chris’ death. “It gives kids a good foundation for learning and helps them thrive later on,” said Mary, also an educator. Initiated in 2009, the school’s Pre-K is flourishing. Money donated to a memorial fund his parents created in his name paid for the establishment of a much-needed early childhood center at Rehoboth Christian School. An American flag rides the breeze on a pole embedded in the ground at the grave site, and the words “honor and courage” are engraved on the headstone.īut CWO2 Johnson’s memory is marked here by more than stone and his nation’s colors. His grave, covered with small rocks, is on a nearby hilltop. “Chris stood there, just taking in the rugged terrain in the cemetery and said, ‘What a neat place to be buried.'” Mary pointed to a large boulder in the cemetery, a feature known as Resurrection Rock. Chuck was a middle school teacher at Rehoboth Christian from 1994 to 2008. Mary, 75, and Chuck, 76, are Christopher Johnson’s parents. “Every time he got any kind of deployment, he came (to Rehoboth). “Chris loved it here,” Mary Johnson said as she and her husband, Chuck, walked in the cemetery this past Wednesday. Rehoboth Christian High seniors, from left, Maggi Van Drunen, Eden Pikaart, Madison Anderson and Stacie Skeet place their hands on handprints made in wet cement by their 2009 Pre-K class. The school and graveyard are located in and share that name with a tiny McKinley County town about six miles east of Gallup. Rehoboth is a Hebrew word that means room, as in a wide or open space. The cemetery is behind Rehoboth Christian School, which was founded by the Christian Reform Church in 1903 as the Rehoboth Mission School. His grave here is more than just a final resting place. So is Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Johnson, who died at age 31, leaving behind a wife and three step-children, when the Chinook helicopter he was piloting crashed in Iraq in August 2007. Navajo code talkers and Christian missionaries are buried here. So are the artificial flowers – some bright with new resolve, others faded by long vigilance – that spill over many of the graves. REHOBOTH – Memorial Day was still days away, but in the Rehoboth Cemetery there were lots of American flags, some of them mangled by New Mexico’s insistent and irreverent winds.įlags are a constant in this cemetery. A memorial fund set up in Christopher’s name paid for the establishment of a Pre-K program at Rehoboth Christian School. Chuck and Mary Johnson stand at the grave of their son, Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Johnson, in the Rehoboth Cemetery.
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