Jim Mason
Columns
June 12, 2008 09:14 AM
By: Jim Mason
A distraught dad told me his sob story during the Whitchurch-Stouffville Softball Association’s year-end tournament some 20 years ago.
Apparently, his son’s team would have won the house league championship if it hadn’t have been “saddled” with a player who was developmentally disabled.
He couldn’t see the benefit of including the boy. Blinded by the glare from the trophy table, I guess.
At the same tourney many years later, teams could see beyond the titles. They cheered wildly when one of the players, fresh from cancer treatments, made a rare plate appearance. The place went nuts. Dry eyes were in short supply.
It’s that inclusion of all that Hilary Price addressed so well at last month’s Whitchurch-Stouffville Prayer Breakfast.
Luke Anderson knows what it’s like to be left out.
Mr. Anderson, an ambassador for the Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion fundraiser, addressed the crowd at the event in Stouffville Sunday.
The Stouffville native became a quadriplegic in 2002 as the result of a mountain-biking accident in British Columbia.
When his wheelchair couldn’t get inside a concert venue, he was literally out in the cold.
He didn’t have to look far for local examples, pointing to the new automatic doors at the Stouffville Arena, where the event was held. To someone lugging a hockey bag and a couple of sticks, the doors are a convenience. To the next person, in a wheelchair, they’re a necessity.
The 16 teams taking part got a taste of the life, rolling through an obstacle course in a wheelchair under the sweltering June sun in the rink parking lot.
At the same time, they were raising money for local projects that will help the disabled.
Win-win’s a big-time cliche, but it sure fit on this afternoon. Here, in a more inclusive Whitchurch-Stouffville.
Jim Mason is editor of The Sun-Tribune.