05/04/2023
🤍🕊️ Our prayers are with the Pizarro family and friends. Such devastating news.
We stand in prayer with our friends and partners in the Lake Wales Charter School System as we all grieve the unimaginable loss of Marlene Pizarro and her three children. Marlene is an alumni of our Educational Studies program and taught students with special needs at Lake Wales Senior High. Marlene will always be remembered for her kind spirit and the passion she held for students who needed a little extra support - as well as her heartfelt desire to be the one to provide whatever they needed to succeed. She loved her family immensely and saw her students as an extension of that. Marlene had such a heart for others, and was a bright light in this world. Our friends and partners at Lake Wales High School didn’t just lose a valued member of their faculty, they also lost one of their seniors who was set to graduate in a few weeks, as well as a former student. Hillcrest Elementary also lost a student in this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the LW Charter System as well as our beloved Lake Wales community as we all struggle to make sense of this situation. May God provide the strength and peace that can only come from Him in times like this to everyone affected by this tragedy. John 14:27 tells us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”. Our hearts are hurting, our world becomes scarier by the day, but we serve a God that is ever present. May we seek and rely on Him to carry us through these difficult days. Highlander Nation, know this - the Royal Nation loves you and has you covered in continuous prayer. RIP, our sweet Marlene and your children. May the darkness that surrounded your death not overshadow the light you shined to those around you.