Emerging Courageous Online Magazine - Stories
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE By Roger Dean
Kiser, Sr.
Yesterday I purchased a 'Hope Chest' for my Granddaughter, Chelsey. My wife,
Judy had been on
me for quiet some time to try and build one so that Chelsey would have a place
to keep her special
momentos. Not as young and active as I once was I decided to purchase a cedar
chest. After we got the chest home I took down an old cardboard box which I had
been using to store things in that I thought she
might like to have when she got older. Near the bottom of the box was the first
draft of my book "Orphan". It was about twenty years old and I started
to thumb through the pages to see what all I had hand written along the borders.
In one section I happened across a page where I had written about inviting a
group of handicapped children to spend several hours at my TrampolineOne center.
I remember telephoning the school and suggesting that they bring the children
out to the center for several hours at no charge. As I did not open the center
until 11:00 am. It was agreed that they would bring the children out at about
9:00 am. That would give them about two hours of jump time.
Well, the children came in several large busses. They were loaded into their
wheel chairs and rolled into the
center. That was an experience that I will never forget. Fifteen or twenty
children which looked somewhat like
little zombies. Not a sound and not much movement coming from any of them.
I had twelve trampolines which were all built ground level. Soon there was a
motionless child lying on
each of the trampolines. They just laid there not moving a muscle. Some were
missing arms and
some legs. Some were not missing any limps at all. Still they just sat and laid
there motionless and silent.
"ALL RIGHT. LET'S TRY AND HOLD DOWN ON THE NOISE OUT THERE," I said
over the microphone.
Several of the teachers laughed and continued to walk around the area. Still
none of the handicapped children
moved a muscle, Not one made a sound. I walked out of the booth and I took my
shoes off. I walked up to
'TrampolineOne number one' and I walked out onto the mat where a child was
laying. I stood over his head and
I gave a little bounce. Just enough for the child to be bounced off the mat
about an inch or two. All
at once the child screamed and began to laugh uncontrollably. All the teachers
came running over
to the trampoline to see what had happened. I was told by one of the teachers
that the child on TrampolineOne
number one had never spoken a word or even made a sound his entire life. The
remainder of the time was spent
with the teachers standing over the children and gently bouncing them from one
side of the trampoline to the
other. All you could hear was the sound of children screaming and laughing at
the top of their little voices,
as though they were on a roller-coaster ride to hell.
When time was up and the children were taken off the trampolines the sounds that
the children were making
where not those of crying, but of wailing.
There were many happy drooling little distorted faces leaving that day. There
were bouncing little heads, and
arms and legs. Whatever could possibly be moved was now moving. What I remember
most from that experience is that I had always thought that I was just too busy
to take the time to do something important for someone else. I guess that was a
day that I found a way to do something important for someone else in the world.
Not during my "busy time" but during my own 'private time'. And we all
have just a little of that which we could share with the world if we really
wanted to.
Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.
[email protected]
Write Roger and let him know your thoughts on his
story!