Addie Greene and Chloe Smith together for the National Anthem !
There were so many steps that went into the pairings between our Special Olympics Basketball program and both the current players and the alumni. Most of them were decided by the physical limitations that each member of our group has, but this one was different, to the point that it was the only one that I hand-picked.
Addie Greene is the granddaughter of Tammy Quesenberry. She is also the daughter of Allison Dalton, not trying to discount that at all, but the two of us don’t run in the same circles. Granny, on the other hand ✋️, played a MAJOR role in my hopes and dreams across the past six years here.
The funniest thing about my relationship with Tammy is that for the first two full years, I only knew her as Addie’s grandmother 👵. It wasn’t until year three that someone pointed out WHO granny actually was / is.
Addie Greene has burdens to carry. First, there’s being the granddaughter of a person who has influence, and second, she is the best player on a team that has a number of holes 🕳 to fill. In her spare time( insert laughter here ), she needs to squeeze in being a teenage girl and enjoy her senior year of high school 🏫.
Other than that…..
I’m sure that there were some folks there on Sunday afternoon, that were wondering about what it was that Rick Nester was trying hard to discover ? When you flip over 50% of your lineup card and only have four upper-class players returning, a great coach has to try his best to mix and match to see what is going to give Greene, Laynie-Jo Leonard and Natalie Burress the best opportunity to have a successful final season.
I try my best to make as many people smile as possible on any given day, and on Sunday, I had my moment where I brought a smile to Miss Greene’s face and now let’s flip the script to the pairing up with little Chloe Smith.
The amount of weight that goes with caring about others in the manner that folks like Vickey Ritchie, Tammy Quesenberry, and I do is ginormous. That is not to say that we are the only three people who care, just the three in this story.
You can not fake caring and to the degree that Vickey cares about everyone inside her circle, well, it tugs at the heart strings. It is amazing 👏 to watch how many people walk through the door 🚪 at Hillsville Elementary School 🏫 on Sunday afternoons, and Vickey knows each and every one ➕️ the back story to the situation. She is willing to share that information with me but only when there is something I need to know.
Chloe Smith is a fun young girl 👧 who brings joy and laughter to those around her. She has become somewhat famous in our circle 🔵 because she made fun of the way Vickey said the word again. It sounded like aaaaaaaagin, and we are still laughing about it months later.
Now, her father 👨 is the absolute definition of a OneofUs.Care person. Everyone should truly CARE about their own child but it takes a special person to show the same love ❤️ for others. Trust me, Patrick Smith has that in SPADES ♠️.
It’s Kevin Burress like, the way that he watches out for everyone, not just Khloe. When the doors 🚪 open up on Sunday, neither Vickey nor I have any idea 💡 exactly who will walk through the door, we just know that we will do our very best to treat them all equally.
But in the transparent world in which I live in, I will state that I’m a better version of myself when Patrick is there to share his energy and love for others.
We need Tammy to be Tammy for as long as she can, for Addie Greene to be Addie Greene and enjoying do so. We need the positivity of Patrick Smith and the silliness of Chloe.
I mentioned that when I was going to thank everyone, it would include a number of people who others don’t like. I include myself in that category but I’ve never asked anyone to ” Like Me “, just to respect 🙏 my efforts for others.
