The opportunity to work alongside Vickey Ritchie and her network of kind hearted souls ♥ that make up the Carroll County Special Olympics Basketball program is Priceless.

  This past Sunday was the latest time and despite having to postpone the event twice and a less than desirable weather day outside, the Hillsville Elementary School Gym was full of Love and Electricity. From start to finish, roughly three hours worth of exactly what we hoped to accomplish 🙏.

Yes, Vickey Ritchie is the 🙎‍♀️ Face of the Day and I’m the voice, the amount of people it took to accomplish this is a long one.

Being that saying Thank You 🙏 is one of my favorite things to do, Why not give it a shot….

Thank You to the folks at Hillsville Elementary School 🏫 for their support in both the use of their facility but also for having some staff on hand to help guide people to the right place !

Thank You to everyone who participated in being ” The Crowd “. The trick to the day when you are holding the 🎤🎙🎤 is to constantly be reading the room to see just how much I had to do on my own versus what the crowd would bring ??? The crowd was AWESOME, from start to finish 👏

Thank You to our very own SRO Chris Mabry for absolutely crushing the National Anthem to get the day started for us 🇺🇸.

Thank You to Mr Ron Cochran, Ethan Richardson and CC Mitchell for being our three officials ! Can’t play Hoops without them.

Thank You to each and every person who played the role of Unified Partner during the 12 quarters of Basketball. Patrick Smith, DJ Delp and Dr David McPherson to name a few but there were many more. As Vickey says, the goal is to have the Partners blend in with the players and support them in a manner that is a MUST have for this to work.

Thank You to the trio of young Ladies that stepped up to help Coach the four teams !

While Velvet Leonard is the one that I have personally interacted with the most during my six years here, I would like to say Thank You to EVERYONE who took a Photo 📷 or a Video 📹 Sunday afternoon. Because so many people did this the flow of the 💘 has poured on for days and days.

Thank You to my 👰 if 41 years for both picking me up from the Airport, once I finally made it 🏡 and for her understanding of how important it was to try once again to be there for Vickey and her Athletes.

Thank You to those who invested their time in working the Snack tables, the game clock ⏰ and the scoring book 📖.

Thank You to the folks that helped Vickey both set up the Gymnasium and then put it back together afterwards.

Thank You to everyone able to park on the far side of the building to make it easier for those who needed the shorter walk 🚶‍♂️.

Thank You to Money 💰 Talley for the opportunity to stand by him as he soaked in the excitement of the day in a manner that resembled a Sponge 🧽 soaking up water 💧.

Thank God for Blessing me with a Skill Set 🙏 that allows me to do the things that I do as I March through Life trying hard to bring joy to others.

Finally, Thank You, Vickey Ritchie for entrusting me to be your Voice for everything you stand for !

The old saying that it takes a village is very true and the Village needs a strong, strong leader to guide the way. And in this case, our Leader has a Voice to assist her on her journey !

The World 🌎 is a Better Place with Vickey Ritchie in it !

More from Sunday :

Spending time with Velvet Leonard was a highlight for sure as she was hard at work with her camera 📷 in a show of support for Special Olympics Basketball 🏀♥!

Still More :

We are going to have to de-ice 🧊 the Plane before taking off so I might have time to tell one story about The Basketball 🏀 Classic