Maumee Valley Campus Rally

Today Alex's school hosted an event that has been a year in the making. Traditionally, the MV Parent's Association has hosted an end of year event. The last couple of years it has been a Carnival on the campus gounds. It was difficult to coordinate and manage so they decided to try something different this year. Becky has been volunteering heavily with the MVPA since Day 1 and wanted to do more. She was convinced that it would be a breeze to chair a new MVPA event that no one had ever done before. She stepped up and showed them what she could do. She may someday write about the trials and tribulations she endured to make this go smoothly, but I've been focusing on the results, because the Maumee Valley Campus Rally was a resounding success.

The event centered around the presentation of Jim "Basketball" Jones, a local performer who intersperses backetball tricks with inspirational messages. He was dyslexic and was put in "special" education classes. His mother read him his textbooks and he ended up as one of the top business students in the country. Along the way, he learned to fit in by spinning basketballs and did basketball halftime shows before realizing that he had a message to share with kids. He taught them "I am important", "I can...I will", and "Never give up!". He got all of the kids involved with ball spins and brought several up for group tricks (Alex is in the white shirt in the middle). He taught kids listening skills with a game of "Simon Says" and ended up the show by spinning eight basketballs at once.

Everyone told Becky what a great job she did coordinating the space, getting Jim to come, providing refreshments, and coordinating several helpful volunteers for this event. She's earned a great weekend off to comtemplate next year's MVPA events.:) She showed her kids what Jim was talking about - that even when things didn't go the way she expected, she never gave up. I'm so proud of her.