Jaden Booker Memorial Scholarship Fund

Jaden burned bright. He lit up the lives of so many people — so many people’s days, so many people’s worlds. His wife and daughter, parents, sister, his grandparents Meme and Papa, cousins, aunts and uncles, his niece, friends, shipmates, coworkers, and countless Domino’s delivery drivers. Well, maybe they lit up his life. That is what Jaden did. He made our lives better. Jaden was born December 9, 2003, and grew up primarily in Hanson, Massachusetts, alongside his sister, Alexa, and, from a certain point on, their honorary sister, Georgia. He enjoyed a variety of activities, both independently and with others, helping form his identity, as well as lifelong bonds and memories. He had a natural inclination for the piano. He loved ping-pong, bowling, board games, etc. More specifically, Jaden enjoyed winning at ping-pong, bowling, board games, etc. A Monopoly loss was devastating for Jaden and could easily require a good 24-hour recovery period. When it came to youth sports, Jaden did not discriminate, playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and football. As a student at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, he ultimately settled into baseball after a football-related broken arm shifted his gaze, and he landed in the outfield on the varsity team prior to graduating in 2022. Jaden burned bright — beginning his vocational life in a way many of us do… as a pirate, of course. Predestined to be a sailor, Jaden worked on the “Lobster Tales” pirate ship cruise in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as a scallywag for the children to overpower with their water cannons in order to retrieve the treasure. He then came ashore to take on a position in the Walmart produce department. No individual will ever care more about the produce at the Halifax Walmart. That indeed sounds a bit funny, but it’s also quite true, and perhaps even poignant. On multiple occasions, Jaden came home from a shift distraught, even emotional, over the lack of concern others had for the work. This idea, this reality, that people would put forth less than they were capable of clearly irked him on a visceral level. I don’t think he ever stopped struggling with that reality, but I also believe it fed his pursuit of excellence, as well as his desire to enlist in the Navy. He departed for boot camp on August 1, 2022. Once trained in his chosen specialty of Master-at-Arms, he was stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he garnered recognition and respect as a result of his sense of dedication and service. The vast majority of us present today knew Jaden during his youth, even from his birth and through his teenage years. However, very few of us really got to know Jaden the adult. He left us before we had the chance to spend quality time with the man he became. Of all his accomplishments, though, I have no doubt Jaden took the most pride in his marriage to Jo’Niyah and the birth of their daughter, Lay’Lani.