NEWS                                                                                    Walnut Valley Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   880 S. Lemon Avenue

July 16, 2014                                                                        Walnut, CA 91789

 

Contact:                                                   

Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources

(909)595-1261 ext. 31204

DIAMOND BAR, CA-- Michael Siacunco and Sarah Lin were engaged on July 11 at the exact place they met 17 years ago – the amphitheater at Quail Summit Elementary School.

Their story began on the second day of school in the fourth grade.

“She chased me because she liked me,” he recalled.

“I liked him,” Lin acknowledged.

Siacunco even got in trouble for running on the playground that day, but he didn’t hold it against her.

They became friends, dated during middle school, and then reconnected during college.

“Then we became best friends,” Lin said. Siacunco is currently serving in the US Air Force stationed in Denver, Colorado and Lin is a nurse at UCLA Medical Center.

Two years ago she wrote him letters during the eight-week basic training.

“I encouraged him and tried to keep him positive,” she said.

“I knew I was headed somewhere that I wanted to be.” Siacunco said. He still has the special letters.

They became a couple about a year ago.

“We were both finding our faith and we just took a leap of faith,” he said.

“He’s the best,” Lin said.

Siacunco arranged the surprise proposal during leave in his hometown.

“We always talk about how this is where me met, “he said.

He incorporated all their favorite places into the occasion– Quail Summit Elementary, Chaparral Middle School, and Diamond Bar High, St. Denis Church, and the Diamond Bar Center.

A girlfriend drove Lin to each location where other friends holding a poster with a special memory and a gift greeted her.

“Every stop had a little blurb about what we were going through during that time in our lives.” Siacunco said.

“The best thing was that I had no idea!” Lin exclaimed.  

But after a few stops, she got the picture.

“By the time we were at Quail Summit I already knew.”

The campus was decorated with lights and rose petals. About 30 family members and friends gathered in the amphitheater while video played photos and tributes.

“I was watching the projector and he came down the aisle singing “As Beautiful as You“ by All 4 One.

Then he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

“Ever since we were younger I would always get butterflies. When I proposed I got those same butterflies that I would get when I was in sixth grade,” he said.

“I was in tears. I just nodded, I couldn’t even talk.” Lin said.

All the families and friends cheered.

“He’s known me for 17 years, there’s no doubt. He’s the one,” she said.

“She was my first girlfriend when we were nine, my first dance when we were ten, and my first kiss. And here we are 17 years later at the place where we met and she’s now my fiancé,” he said.

Michael Siacunco and Sarah Lin were engaged on July 11 at the exact place they met 17 years ago – the Quail Summit Elementary School amphitheater.

Michael Siacunco proposed to his fiancé Sarah Lin at Quail Summit Elementary School on July 11.