I received this email over the weekend, and I have permission to share this story on my blog. You’ll be glad you read it.
From a South Milwaukee junior varsity girls’ basketball parent …
Hello basketball families. I witnessed something Friday night that I think you all need to know …
Our JV and varsity girls were playing at Shorewood high school. During the JV game, Shorewood had a young gentlemen with Down’s syndrome announcing the game. (That in itself, melted my heart).
After our JV game, our girls went to the locker room, then got food, talked with parents, or whatever. Towards the end of varsity warm ups, this young gentlemen came and found each of our girls in the stands, and directed them to come down to the court. Our girls did. Then this young man directed them to the back line of the court and had them stand in a line. Again, our girls did, without hesitation. He also told them where to stand, handed one girl his cell phone, held hands with 2 of our girls, and there they stood, as a team, (plus one) for the national anthem, picture attached (pasted in this blog post).
After this, our girls came back into the stands, and sat as a team by the video camera to film the varsity game. Again, the young man joined our girls. He talked with them, shared snapchat and kik info with some, asked all their names, and even held many of their hands. (Yes, their hands. My husband had cringed, since of course his daughter might hold a boy’s hand, and we tell our 3 girls and their friends all the time, “boys are icky”). This boy also asked the girls (I think individually each girl) to the prom, in which they kindly declined since we live to far away.
These girls felt, I’m sure, weird and embarrassed, but they did it. They held his hand and talked with him, and had FUN! …
I’m proud to know that these girls opened their heart to a child with special needs and took time to make him smile. In today’s world, with all the meanness and bullying, I’m proud to say that our JV South Milwaukee girls were nothing but kind, thoughtful and polite. I can only hope, for the sake of humanity, that this boy is always treated this way. He was truly raised to be brave and have lots of courage, and our girls were raised to be kind and respectful. Thanks JV parents for raising remarkable girls and thank you girls for being so REMARKABLE!!! I believe we made a nice impression on this young man, named Sam. Way to make SM proud!
And this came as a follow up …
Our girls have developed a history with Sam, and his parents and the athletic director have made mention of this each year. We have great girls which is a tribute to our parents and coaches. Sometimes these great things get lost in the wins and losses, but at the end of the day we know we have done our jobs.
Amen to that.
South Milwaukee Blog 