When reading the title of this post, many sports fan will immediately flash back to October 15, 1988, and Game 1 of the World Series between the Oakland A's and Los Angeles Dodgers. They will recall the late, great Jack Buck's famous call as Kirk Gibson was limping around the bases after hitting a backdoor slider from Dennis Eckersley out of Dodger Stadium for a game winning home run. However even though I grew up near St. Louis listening to Jack Buck on KMOX 1120 radio, I now tend to think of things other than Gibson's home run when I see, hear, or say those words. Over the past 6 1/2 years I've heard and said those words more than a few times.
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| Brad loves hitting driver! |
While helping one of our regular junior golfers during a recent junior golf clinic, we were joined by a therapist who wanted to mix therapy and golf. This is certainly nothing new as golf has been incorporated into therapy plans since we began the golf program on May 10, 2011. About halfway through our session, I heard the therapist say, "I don't believe it. I've never seen that before." What happened that prompted that reply? Our junior golfer made eye contact with me and signed "play more." I don't know sign language, but have learned enough to know exactly what was said to me so we did just what was requested -- teed up another golf ball and kept playing!
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| Abbey loved "Golfday" during her time at Ranken Jordan! |
Throughout our 325+ (and still counting) golf clinics there have been many instances where any number of people said something similar to "I don't believe what I just saw." Several of those stories I have written about in detail in other blog posts. There was the time I looked at Janine Roe, Community Program Director at Ranken Jordan, and said "did you see that?" as one of our most dedicated junior golfers reached over from her wheelchair and raked the next golf ball onto her mat to hit. Or how about the time Dakota told us golf was "stupid and boring" prior to finally picking up a putter and making 20 consecutive 5 foot putts? Maybe watching Cooper progress from hitting golf balls out of his hospital bed, then from his wheelchair, on to his walker and then with no aid. Of course who could forget watching junior golfers like AJ, Drew, May, CC, and Brad stand for the first time to hit golf balls! That certainly elicited the aforementioned response!
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| Not sure who is getting the putting lesson! |
When you spend any amount of time in an incredible facility like Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital, you will always see things that leave you amazed and believing in miracles (yes, there's another sports quote reference for you). It would not be a stretch at all for me to say that each and every week I see something that makes me feel that way. The examples I have mentioned in this post are only a few of the hundreds of stories that could be told. I cherish every second I am fortunate enough to spend with the kids helping put smiles on their faces through the game of golf. Mrs. Jordan was 100% correct when she said that we all should "consider the children first in all you do."
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| CC showing off her new glove |
