When Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Newsom light the 88th Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Sacramento Dec. 5, 10-year-old Nayeli Lemus of Gilroy will throw the switch.
The fourth-grader at Charter School of Morgan Hill got a couple of days off this week for her first visit to the Capitol with her parents Angel and Rosalinda Lemus, and her two-year-old sister, Naia, of Gilroy. Nayeli Lemus, who has Down syndrome, was selected to be the representative for the more than 340,000 people in California with intellectual and developmental disabilities, in a ceremony highlighting “California’s cultural diversity and spirit of inclusion.”
This year’s Capitol Christmas Tree is a white fir that stands 66 feet and 3 inches tall from the LaTour Demonstration State Forest in Shasta County. The tree, lit by approximately 10,000 LED lights, is decorated with at least 300 traditional ornaments and more than 500 hand-crafted ornaments made by children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Nayeli Lemus spent part of Dec. 2 in a media spotlight in her classroom at the charter school, located just south of the San Jose city limits off Highway 101. She took the attention in her stride, inviting all of her visitors, including reporters and Assemblyman Robert Rivas of Hollister, to attend the Capitol ceremony.
Nayeli has been attending the charter school since kindergarten, said her mother.
“It’s a wonderful school,” she said. “I’m really thankful we have a choice of schools for her, especially this public school.”
The California Department of Developmental Services and the San Andreas Regional Center selected Lemus, because she is an “energetic independent fourth-grader who loves school, singing, dancing, going to the beach and reading books.”
The San Andreas Regional Center, which serves Santa Clara, San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, is one of 21 nonprofit regional centers that contract with DDS to serve both children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Additionally, California Volunteers is partnering with the Sacramento Children’s Home to place a Giving Tree at the Tree Lighting Ceremony. The Giving Tree will be decorated with Wish Stars for attendees to take and fulfill the holiday wishes of local children in need.
Performers for this year’s celebrations will include the Paradise Strong Chorus from Paradise Ridge Elementary School, Quetzalcoatl Aztec Dancers, the Sacramento Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps, the Sacramento Taiko Dan, the Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange of Sacramento, the Kalinka Russian Folk Dance Group, bbmoves, the KEEN Khmer Ballet of Stockton, the Korean Culture Center Urisawe, the Palestinian Dabke Dancers, Hmong Youth and Parents United, Silver Flower, the Lao Association of Sacramento Group, Dream Dance Studios, Wild Bear Sacramento Pow Wow Drum and Dance and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
