I always get a little choked up when I am around children, especially the tiny ones.

There’s just something magical, angelic, or in some rare cases, devilish about them. Whatever it is, it brings happy tears to my eyes and makes my heart flutter with primal joy, hope and old-fashioned pride.

Anybody who knows me knows that I just love children; it’s something I inherited from my parents who created eight of us.

Last week I had the chance to witness my grand-niece, Devona, as she stood on stage at the Geraldine J. Mann Elementary School’s assembly where she and 16 other students were recognized as Students of the Month by their teachers, fellow students and their doting Principal Mary Kevins and the event co-chairs Mr. Carlo and Mrs. Leo.

Every single one of them earned an official handshake from the principal, and an Olympic-style medal which was carefully placed around their neck, a beautiful certificate, and their picture prominently placed on the wall of fame in plain and easy view of everyone who enters the well-manicured campus.

Congratulations to Taylor Brooks, Sean Fuller, Darren Lagace, Jordan Brooks, Kelsey Viele, Brandy England, Jayden Hoyt, Jenna Havens, Kylie Frain, China Bowden, Chris Coleman, Eden Castellani, Brett Delles, Colleen McNally, Ciara Downey, Latyshiah Jordan and little Emma Cook as well as their teachers.

This was a big deal for all of them and especially so for Devona who was absolutely bound and determined to earn the distinction, in part because her 8-year-old twin sister, Dezhana had won the prestigious award a month or two earlier. They are by nature, highly competitive to say the least.

Not to be out done, their 5-year-old cousin Anazha walked across the stage at Hyde Park Elementary School a few days later, a very proud and cute as a button pre- kindergarten graduate.

I was among the several dozen or so proud parents, grand parents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and friends who came out, cameras flashing, to record the moment and to cheer them on.

Congratulations to them too — without their support and encouragement, some of those bright eyes might not have made it, and in some cases, won’t go much farther without them.

While so many of their family have left the area, headed for greener pastures out west and down south, these few who stayed might be witnessing the beginning of a serious reversal of the trend that started more than 50 years ago; a trend that saw more than half of our population migrate away from the great home town that this good place once was.

Sadly, anybody born and raised here who stayed behind, watched, usually unknowingly, a region in steep decline. The little ones born into this could not have known that what they were seeing was not normal in the global context of a nation that was everyplace else prospering beyond belief.

To them, decay became the norm, except on television, in the movies or in Florida, the Carolinas or out west in Arizona and Las Vegas where so many of their grandparents and other relatives had escaped to.

But to this new crop of elementary students, the future may look a lot brighter, though they are still too young to see it; their parents can, if they look.

As fate, or divine intervention might have it, the stars are beginning to line up just right; our home town could be sitting on the precipice of prosperity unlike anything we have ever seen or heard of before.

What could be happening right before our very eyes is so big, so enormous, so amazing, that it is hard to see it unless you step back, put it all into perspective and have a tad of hope along with a healthy portion of faith and enough love to move mountains.

I cannot know for certain what John Howard Payne was thinking when he wrote “Home Sweet Home” for his 1823 opera, “Clari, Maid of Milan,” but he, like Dorothy who uttered “There’s no place like home” in the 1939 “Wizard of Oz” and Motley Crue or Carrie Underwood when they crooned, “Home is where your heart is”, but surely they all must have had in mind the same heart felt sentiment we all feel when we think of that place we cherish as “Home.”

For me it is Niagara.

And this weekend, thanks in large part to my friend Frank Croisdale and a growing handful of true believers inspired indeed by Marti Gorman’s unbelievable energy and vision, has put together a signature event which has the potential of capturing the momentum of the reversal of the 50 year old out migration trend, and maybe, just maybe could begin to open the flood gates to attract some of our expatriates back to the nest.

Admittedly, it is just a trickle right now, but some former Niagarans are at least rethinking their moves.

Consider this:

• Real estate values in the nether regions are still tumbling, but not ours. In fact many houses which could be bought here for $100,000 or less sold for 10 times as much elsewhere, and when the bubble burst, they fell in value to half as much or less leaving a lot of families upside down in debt over their heads.

• Unemployment here is no where near the 12 to 20 percent and climbing that some of the cities in California, Arizona, Nevada and the Carolinas are facing. Sure, things are tough everywhere, but we have probably already hit rock bottom and we are more likely to bounce back sooner and stay up longer. Alternative green energy resource development industries are easily within our reach.

• Water, an increasingly rare commodity out west and down south, is literally and virtually all around us. The Great Lakes, the largest fresh water supply on the planet is an abundant source of energy, intercontinental trade, and if we can get it and keep it clean, a source of good food and drinking water for centuries to come.

• Weather and climate change is no longer a subject of debate. Torrid temperatures, wild storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, crop damage, loss of life ... all of it has become indisputable. We are, for now, though not immune, not subjected to the destructive extremes that so much of the rest of the nation is dealing with right now. In fact our weather, seasons and all, is becoming the envy of the nation. Don’t believe it? Turn on the Weather Channel, or better yet, step outside.

So, to all of our returning guests, Welcome Back ... and to those who may be considering leaving, especially the little ones look again!

Contact Bill at bill.bradberry@yahoo.com.