The back story to the Jerry and Vickey story takes place in the insurance office of one Marion Harris. Yes, the same Marion Harris who took the time to share his thoughts with a little girl on The Hill, one in which he encourages her to give Basketball a chance.
Here, in a few weeks, that same little girl will lace up her sneakers 👟 for her junior year of Hoops down at Furman University in Travelers Rest, South Carolina.
I was still fairly new in town and trying to meet new people. Not just people but folks that I believed were similar to myself, OneofUs types. I had just stumbled upon Travis Osborne, completely by accident, at the Middle School during a softball game.
That meeting was a complete fluke, but the one where Vickey Ritchie agreed to meet Lin and myself at Marion’s office was a direct response to a column that I would write ✍️, titled the coolest person that I never met….
It was not uncommon back in the early stages of being in Carroll County or as I like to call it, The Hill, for us to invest $1,000.00 towards a cause we felt good about. Sometimes, the donation would grow into a long-term relationship, while others, it was just what we like to call a one-and-done.
We were trying to create a ministry that mimicked that of Tim Tebow. We want to stand for everything he does, and while we knew that it would be on a miniscule scale by comparison, we chased it hard.
While Tebow and his foundation ( we are proud to play a small role in it) are known for numerous projects around the world, a number of people know him as the creator of Night to Shine. It turns out that Vickey and I were on different ends of one of those events before we knew who each other was.
The relationship took a hot minute to develop, but once it did, it absolutely flourished. So much that this Sunday afternoon will be the first week in eleven that we won’t share the space at Hillsville Elementary School. But we did share that space on Friday morning at her annual Little Feet Meet !
While the day is a who’s who of important people in the power structure that is Carroll County higher education, I worked a station 🚉 on the far end of the parking lot.
So, yes, I missed out on the conversations with the likes of Dwayne Huff and Jay Holderfield, I still spent time with some awesome people !
The line is the introduction to Law and Order, goes like this – Here is their story…
In my writing ✍️, I often borrow from others, and every time I do, I take the time to give credit where credit is due. While I am old, I wasn’t born yet when someone made the reference, ” Yankee Stadium, the House that Ruth Built.”
Now, Joe Goddard did actually build the field that has him name on it up in West Virginia, but everyone else is just an expression. Over the years, I have started a box set of these with my favorite one being – Lucas Oil Stadium, the house that Peyton Manning built. The next one is the Durham Bulls Stadium, the House that Kevin Costner built.
I am a huge fan of Principal Amy Nester, mostly because of her kindness in our interactions with Vickey Ritchie and Special Olympics events. But she had a tough task in replacing a larger than life personality. Being a Elementary School Principal is a monster 👻 sized task anyway, but Amy had to do it inside the House that Dr Samantha Reed built !
Someone had to coach at UCLA after John Wooden, Alabama after Bear Bryant, UNC after Dean Smith. Other than Jon Schyer at Duke, who took the baton from Coach K, where has it truly worked out ?
Ms. Nester is beyond smart and took her time in trying hard to build her very own leadership style. From my point of view, she has aced the test ! You can not fake caring, just not possible.
Nancy and Sage did a great deal of the heavy lifting 🫴💪 ahead of the event. They work at the next level above our Vickey Ritchie and are dedicated servants to the greater cause. But, there is only one, Vickey Ritchie !!!
We arrived together Friday morning only because Kris Richardson was kind enough to swing by our place, pick me up, and drop me at Hardee’s. That Richardson Fella is the one that took the little girl whom Marion found, teamed her up a few others, and coached them through the early stages of their careers.
To this day, I’m still afraid 😨 of the intensity that two of them possess. I am not going to name names ( Easter and Hagee), but they were / are fierce.
Kris is a five-star 🌟 Uber driver who was probably glad when I was out of his car 🚗. One biscuit later, I was with The Boss ( all 3’6 of her – inside joke 😃) and we were on our way to Amy’s school 🏫.
We hit the ground running to get everything set up, following the lead of Nancy and Sage. It probably took one hour or so, and both Patrick Smith and Ron Mack were part of the crew. There were plenty of others, but those two are key 🔑 players in Team Vickey !!
In the conspiracy theory, conspiracy corner of my brain 🧠, Vickey was asked to place me as far away from the school as possible so I wouldn’t bother any important people. See, I am very passionate about both education and Special Olympics…
We headed to the far side of the lot for the Tennis Ball Throw. Nancy was awesome in her ability to think on her feet as we couldn’t find the tub of tennis balls for our event. She switched us to rubber softballs, the ones that were intended for the afternoon group that included the older students.
Karen Pell and Evee Smith were my teammates for the following two hours, and the three of us listened closely to every word that Nancy offered 🫴 as instruction.
Once Nancy turned us loose, I turned to Karen, and are you up to having some fun? God has placed me with the perfect partners because Karen could not have said yes any quicker!!
For those of you reading this that don’t know what the event is all about, each of K -2 teachers bring their classes to the event, and each student gets an activity card. They move from group to group and participate in roughly 12 to 15 events. Each student gets a star on their card after the event, and wow, Evee Smith created a system for thar part quickly.
For our group, each participant gets to throw three rubber balls as far as they can, and then, after all five, come out to help us retrieve the balls for the next group. Knowing just how hard all teachers of little kiddos work, we looked to upgrade our experience. How 🤔❓️ by offering ourselves as human targets.
It is worth noting that some of them might be future pitchers for Casey Burcham or Rick Nester.
While I tried to add a personal offering of encouragement to all teachers, I smiled when Mrs Adrienne Harris McGuire brought her group by !! I knew that Adrienne would jump at the chance to let her group take target practice on her ! Marion ( and Sheila ) raised a keeper there…
Vickey joined us for one group and it was fun to see Madison Lyons and Debbie Odum doing what they do. We collectively presented a group hug 🫂 to hundreds of people, all under the umbrella 🌂 of education and equality!
Because we have readers all around the world 🌎, we like to do what I call a circle back for them.
- Little Feet Meet is Awesome
- Hillsville Elementary School is led by a remarkable Principal and is a gracious host.
- This was not Nancy’s first rodeo, she knows what she is doing.
- Sage is young and energetic with a bright future.
- Patrick and Samantha raised a bright young Lady.
- All of us were created equally.
- Adrienne Harris McGuire gives me hope for our future.
- Most importantly, we all live in Vickey Ritchie’s World 🌎 and I feel blessed to do so !
