Tribute of a Daughter’s Love
Christina Branchedor isn’t the type of person who easily gives up. She was determined to help her father gain a temporary visa so he could travel from Haiti to the United States to attend her high school graduation and after a year of effort, achieved her goal.
Ms. Branchedor, who is a member of Huntington High School’s Class of 2010, teamed up with her English-11 teacher, Allison Collins, to write the letter that helped spearhead the effort.
Ms. Collins called the teenager’s campaign a “personal, heartfelt, intense, yearlong quest. She did this all on her own. I was shocked that her perseverance truly paid off.”
Ms. Branchedor’s father was allowed into the U.S. on June 21. The next day he attended her graduation from a Wilson Tech program. He was also in attendance at last Friday night’s Huntington High School commencement exercises.
Admitting that she was “so stressed and didn’t know what to do,” Ms. Branchedor turned to Ms. Collins “and I just told her how I feel inside and she helped me put them [the letters to her father and the embassy] together. She is always willing to help me in anything I need help with, such as an essay.”
Ms. Collins called it “a heartwarming story, especially with the Haitian crisis this past year. There were so many obstacles.” The teacher called the effort “a tribute of a daughter’s love.”
“The immigration of my dad into this country was the best gift I could ever have had for my graduation,” Ms. Branchedor said.
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