OSU athletes leave lasting impression
Last week I saw media coverage on a negative, but all too frequent incident involving an OSU varsity athlete. However, on Saturday, May 2, I witnessed a very positive gesture by several OSU athletes that will go virtually unnoticed, except for the few hundred people that were there.I went home on Saturday to watch my sister participate in a regional Special Olympics competition. When I got there, I was surprised to see several OSU cheerleaders and two OSU football players, including Joe Germaine at the event. I thought that I had to get up early to make the drive to Amanda High School to see my sister carry the torch in the opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m., but these OSU athletes were there for an 8 a.m. volunteer breakfast. Then they stayed, in the relentless rain, until 1 p.m. They spent most of the morning meeting, signing autographs for and cheering on the special athletes. They did everything from holding the finish line tape for the running events to congratulating participants, even if they finished last in their heat. I was extremely impressed. How many college students, athlete or not, would sacrifice their Saturday morning to stand in the rain at a rural high school for five hours signing autographs and taking pictures with a couple hundred special needs kids? The unique thing was that there wasn’t a TV camera or major newspaper reporter in sight. The lack of media recognition that the group’s effort will receive makes it that much more special. Thank you to all of you that were there, you brightened the day of a lot of young people.
Kim NoeckerSeniorFinance/Human Resources
