Spelling bee becomes homecoming for soldier and young daughter (video)
Oct 13, 2011, 7:36 PM EDT
How do you spell awesome? A spelling bee at Boca Raton Elementary School recently was really a ruse to reunite 9-year-old Skylar Johnson with her dad, Staff Sergeant Therron Johnson, whom she hadn’t seen since Christmas. When it came Skylar’s turn to spell a word, she was given “sergeant,” and she got it right, of course.
As she belted out the final “T,” her teacher asked if she knew any special sergeants.
“My dad.” she replied.
Right on cue, Sergeant Johnson, dressed in his National Guard uniform, popped out from behind the stage curtain and swept his daughter into a huge hug.
“I love you baby! I love you so much!” said the teary-eyed sergeant.
Christian, her brother, who attends a different school, also had a surprise.
He recalled, “They told me I was going to early dismissal and I didn’t know what I was going to do, so I walked up to the stage and I saw my dad in his uniform with my sister. I felt like it was a dream that came to real life.”
The family, taking time off together before Johnson has to go back to Iraq, spoke to “The Early Show” from Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
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Soldier’s homecoming surprises daughter at Boca Raton school [CBS12]
