To Parents & Guardians:

 

For the better part of my life I have participated, coached and watched organized sports, and for a similar span of time I have attended, volunteered and worked summer camps, after school programs and retreats.  Six years ago I spent a summer at a therapeutic recreation facility for children with various mental and physical disabilities.  My campers would always tell me how much they loved and looked forward to the time they spent there because of how supportive the atmosphere was and how it made them feel "normal."  Over time, they had come to accept their limitations, but failed to see their exceptional talents.  Talents which I assured them would always set them apart from the "normal."  One of those former campers and now one of my closest friends is about to graduate from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics.  Ironically, he has been one of my biggest inspirations and motivators.  Two years ago, I was volunteering at a south Miami-Dade park when several parents approached me and a few others about getting their teenagers jobs.  After a day, it was obvious they weren't prepared to interview let alone keep a job.  We spent weeks preparing for interviews, workplace behavior and what to do with a check once they got it.  In the meantime, we taught them the basics of entrepreneurship and successfully opened a lunch counter.  Furthermore, all are currently pursuing a college education.  For the last two school years I have worked with two local Tallahassee schools and an after school program mentoring and preparing students for the FCAT and Florida Writes.  In between going over testing strategies and creative writing exercises, the conversation is always about sports; and of my 50 middle school students, about 40 participate in organized sports.  It's with them that for the first time as an adult I am able to pursue my passions to educate while be involved in sports.  My gift in return to them is my time, my energy and my best effort to make their success in any endeavor only inevitable.  This campaign is about letting the world take part in our journey, and to be involved in our story literally from the ground up.