You may never know what affect your actions may have on other people. My son’s have been blessed to participate in a wonderful football program at their high school that is coached by an outstanding group of men. The head coach is often times quoted as saying his job is not only to coach the football team but to make these young boys into great men. Recently he decided to have the players wear specially made jersey’s for a game against their rival that they have never won a game against. The jersey’s for this game would not have the players name on them but instead they would have the name of a person who is currently or has battle cancer. It could be a survivor or someone who lost the battle to cancer. Instead of putting our family name on it to represent my husband I decided to put the words Dream Big on it then after the game frame it and put in a shadow box for the team to put up at the high school so the players could also hear Jim’s message to Dream Big.
Before the game the players had the opportunity to meet the person they were representing or the family of the person. The young men were told to listen to the person’s story. The players sat with the person or their families and learned about their battle with cancer. Some were able to hear the stories of a fight with cancer and the joys of being in remission others heard about an ongoing battle and some learned about loved one’s that didn’t win the fight. Each player walked away from that night understanding who they were representing.
The night of the game the football players took the field and I believe had a bigger purpose than wanting to beat their rival, they wanted to win for the person they were representing. When they walked off the field that night they were victorious in many ways – they beat their rival for the first time in the schools history and they won for the many people they represented. At the end of the game the players presented the jersey to the person or family they were representing. Our Dream Big jersey now is with all the players and will remind all current and future football players to Dream Big!