Stephen is a State Champ!

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Every Mom and Dad entertain hopes for their children.  Maybe they'll be a doctor or a lawyer or even President.  When you have a son with 'special needs' your hopes and expectations change, but they don't go away.  Right now my Stephen, who has Down Syndrome, is looking for his first 'real job' and it's a difficult transitional season. He's a trooper and doesnt' mind the interviews and hasn't seemed to mind the rejections yet, but he's pounding the pavement!

Two weekends ago, Stephen's basketball team, the TASK Titans, went to Wentzville for the state championship in his division.  WIL was one of the main financial sponsors of this great event and as I sat there watching my son compete 'for the gold', at every time out the P.A. announcer would thank the sponsors of the weekend's festivities.  With each time-out, I was more and more proud of our station for being behind such a worthwhile event!

Stephen's team won the semi-final game and were poised to battle a team from the Kansas City area.  Now you want to work up the competitive juices and of course we always want to out do the KC side of the state, and the other team had much cooler uniforms so we could shoot for the geographical rivalry or 'class warfare', but none of that seemed appropriate when trying to get pumped up to defeat special olympians. 

During the weekend, Bill Gunn the head basketball coach at Kirkwood High School came to one of the games, since one of our players is his 'ball boy.'  This is two years in a row this classy gentleman has attended one of our tournaments.  Bill Gunn is a quality guy for many, many reasons.

Well, the Titans won!  As they celebrated their triumph they were hugging the cheer leaders that had volunteered their time from the Wentzville high school that hosted the event.  They didn't miss the opportunity to hug the cute ones twice!

I cry at Kleenex commercials, but this wasn't one of those events, but it did remind me as we applauded both teams for each of their baskets and each of their accomplishments, that we should celebrate one another's accomplishments more often.  What if we celebrated when the guy in the cubicle next to us closed a big deal?  What if we supported one another when the project is running behind and someone needs a bit more of our time?  What if we realized everyone was SPECIAL?  Maybe we'd treat each other just a little bit better.

Do Good!