D14 had a wonderful experience at our state ceremony last year. She had the top score in one of the categories, and the woman handing out the medals happened to have administered the Stanford-Binet to her at age 4. D, of course, had no clue who this woman was. But when she gave D her medal, this woman recognized her name. She quietly said a few words to her about having tested her, and remembering D's great potential, and how exciting it was to see her succeed all these year's later. D said later that it felt a bit like Harry Potter finding out that people knew who he was. It made her week, that is for sure. She did ask on the way home if her Hogwarts letter would be arriving soon
She also went to the NUMATS ceremony (a top 3 finisher, so maybe worth it because of the extra recognition), but her dad took her, so I am not sure about the format for that. They happened to be traveling through Chicago that weekend, so it worked out for them.
For us these have been worth going to over the years (esp. the state one) because it pretty infrequent that our kids get true applause from a crowd for being gifted. My D has been very proud of her accomplishments in NUMATS, and we have enjoyed celebrating them with her.
