Local Celebration of Life Planned for Rockwell Elementary Teacher

A celebration honoring the life of Coach Don Wong will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013.

It will be in the gym at Redmond Middle School, 10055 166th Ave NE, Redmond, from 6-8 pm. Refreshments will be provided by the Wong family.

In tribute to Coach, attendees are invited to wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts or T-shirts. There will be an open microphone period in which attendees will be welcome to share their memories of Wong.

Parking at Redmond Middle School will be limited, so overflow parking may be available at Horace Mann Elementary School, just around the corner at 17001 NE 104th Street, Redmond.

P.E. Teacher Don Wong, who worked at Norman Rockwell Elementary in Redmond, died Feb. 11.

In a post on Facebook, Rockwell Principal Kirsten McArdle posted:

Hi everyone. I wanted to let you know that after school tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be carefully taking down the memorial items, and will be saving them all for the celebration of his life we plan to hold in the next month. I sent photos of Coach's wall to his family and they displayed them, along with several cards and notes we sent, at his funeral this past Sunday. Many of his family and friends spoke about how Coach loved his job and felt he had the best job in the world.

We will be having an unofficial "dress like Coach" day on Wednesday (Hawaiian shirts and shorts), and are working to plan how we will honor Coach and carry his legacy forward.

He believed in every last one of you -- and for those whose names he mispronounced for years... I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing. ;) We will miss him like crazy.

~ Mrs. McArdle 

Denise Waters also posted on Facebook that a banner will be made to go up at Hartman Park to honor Wong. It will reportedly say:

We will try our best,

We will play hard and be fair,

And we will always remember Coach!

"You'll Get it!" - Coach Don Wong, 1951-2013.

Please email Kirsten McArdle at kmcardle@lwsd.org with any questions regarding the celebration of life. 

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