Soldier's Return A Big Surprise For Brick 6th-Grader (Video)

BRICK, NJ — When Maggie Angrosina and her sixth-grade classmates gathered in the Veterans Memorial Middle School auditorium on Wednesday afternoon, they thought it was just another assembly.

They listened as the teachers and administrators talked about how well they've been performing on some recent academic projects, and fidgeted — albeit mostly quietly — while they sat.

But when Principal Renee Kotsianis and Vice Principal Jim Carr started talking about awarding a prize for all the great work the students had put in, they all sat up straight, abuzz with the possibilities. Who would get it? What would it be?

What they didn't know was the winner was already picked, and the prize was something that only Maggie Angrosina would really enjoy: a visit from her oldest brother, Matthew, who has been away with the U.S. Army for 11 months.

And when he stepped from behind the curtain on the auditorium stage, the room erupted with applause and cheers for Maggie, who wrapped her brother in a hug as she cried tears of joy, while the adults in the room wiped their eyes, too.

U.S. Army Spec. Matthew Angrosina has been deployed in Europe for most of the last year, serving in Romania, Poland and Germany, he said. But he got word a couple of months ago that he would be home for a visit, and told his parents, Lynda and David.

However, the three decided to keep it a secret from Maggie and Michael, Matthew's younger brother, who's a freshman at Brick Memorial.

"It was hard to keep it a secret for that long," Matthew said with a smile. "I just kind of stopped talking to them (Maggie and Michael)" because he was afraid he would give it away.

"We text a lot," Maggie said.

Lynda said when they got a finalized date for Matthew's return, she reached out to Maggie's teacher, Senala Nolasco, to arrange for Matthew to surprise Maggie in school. At first the plan was to just surprise her in the classroom, but Nolasco called Lynda on Tuesday and told her it was a bigger plan.

"We didn't even tell Matthew what was going to happen because he doesn't like that much attention," Lynda said.

The first stop was picking up Michael at Brick Memorial.

"I had no idea," Michael said, "until I saw him in the car." And he was content with not having the extra surprise that his sister had, he said. Seeing her react, "I teared up."

"I thought it was going to be just her and then I saw all the sixth-graders," Matthew said. The support and response made him smile. "It's great," he said. "I used to sit in these seats."

Maggie said she was surprised when her name was called for the special prize, but she had no idea how special it was going to be. "I thought it was going to be the mascot," she said, as the Brick Memorial Mustang showed up for the assembly."

She was still a bit speechless after all the hugs.

"It's great having him home," David Angrosina said. "It's great that people can see what a good man he has turned into."

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