It is an honor to present Ethan Pio as our Cape Kid of the month for March. Ethan graduated West Morris Mendham High School this past June and really showed his peers that it is cool to be kind.
For the past three years, Ethan has been a part of a club called Friends and Buddies at Mendham. This club works with special needs students at his school. Ethan has become good friends with all of the special needs students, however, he says “Casey has probably been the closest to me and has caught my eye the most.”
As Ethan’s senior prom was approaching, he knew he wanted to make a memorable prom for himself and his date. When he was thinking about who to ask, Ethan instantly thought of Casey for a couple of reasons. First of all, Casey made it a point to tell everyone in their school that Ethan and her were “boyfriend and girlfriend.” Another reason for him wanting to take Casey to prom was because he says, “she is honestly one of the most perfect people at Mendham. Despite her special needs, every girl should strive to be more like Casey.” Last but certainly not least, Ethan wanted to give Casey a memorable day to make her as happy as she makes others every day. She was certainly the most deserving girl he could have asked.
When it came to the promposal, Ethan went all out. On Casey’s birthday everyone sang to her in the lunchroom, but behind her a huge present was waiting for her. When Casey opened the gift, out popped Ethan with a sign asking her to prom. She said yes and they both had huge smiles on their faces. The promposal was elaborate, to say the least, because Ethan wanted to make every part of Casey’s prom so special.
The day of prom, Ethan recalls seeing the excitement on Casey’s face in school. At pre-prom pictures, Ethan says, “Casey smiled so big when we took pictures and she excitedly introduced me to her family. It was honestly the cutest thing ever for her to introduce me the way she did even though I had met her family countless times.”
On the way to prom, Casey, Ethan and their friends had a blast on the party bus. Once at prom, they danced the night away. The highlight of the night was when Ethan got a bunch of his friends to form a circle around Casey and she danced with a huge smile on her face. Ethan made sure Casey had the best night and one she can remember forever. Ethan admits, “the whole weekend Casey’s mom was spamming my phone because Casey was talking about prom so much. This prom was far better than last year and far better than anything I could have done that day.”
When asked how he would describe his relationship with Casey, Ethan says “she is always so positive, happy and unbelievably caring. She looks out for the well-being of her other classmates helping them to be safe and get them through their days. She is also hilarious and tries to make people laugh and be happy when there not having a good day. That is not something you see from the majority of high school students.”
On a daily basis, Ethan tries to BETTER THAN THAT™by not caring about the people who try to bring him down. He tries to be himself and help others whenever he can just like Casey does. Ethan believes it is important for people to reject drama and not get caught up in problems that come along with being a teen. Ethan admits, “I do not consider myself as kind, but I know I have done kind things.” He thinks kind actions are the right thing to do because everyone deserves to have a good day every day.
Through working with special needs students, Ethan lives his life by focusing on the good over the bad. He tries to be like Casey in the sense that he is always friendly and selflessly makes other people’s lives better. Ethan is a humble hero who continues to WEAR THE CAPE™ proudly. It is an honor for us to share his kindness story. Good Luck next year following your dreams of becoming a mechanical engineer at Purdue University.