Recently, I had the chance to attend an amazing sports event. It was not a pro or collegiate game, but a basketball clinic for kids with special needs of various kinds, including both cognitive and physical challenges. Each child was paired with a high school aged “buddy” to be their personal coach for the two-hour session. At first, my entire focus was on the faces of the special needs children; how happy they were to be treated as equals by the older kids, and how proud they were made to feel as star players of their two-person teams. But I realized, too, how fulfilling this experience was for the high school helpers, and what important lessons they were learning as they coached and encouraged their young all-stars. They may have differed in size... but this day, all stood equally tall.
EVENT NOTES: The iCan Hoop basketball project was founded by Julie Hagen, a mom who wanted her son Lucas to have a place to play and kids to play with. iCan is now a part of the West Metro Miracle League. For more information on the West Metro Miracle League, visit http://www.westmetromiracleleague.org/. For more photos from the iCan Hoop event, click here. And to see why we devoted this posting to their cause, click here.
© 2011 Mike Anderson. All rights reserved.
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