ALLOW ME TO RIP MYSELF OFF FROM A DIFFERENT SITE

This was posted from a high school girls basketball message board...really didn't have anything to do with girls high school basketball, but people wanted an uplifting story after reading this. And so I wrote...

"Non-basketball related, although he'll be featured Thursday night on ESPN during the Home Depot College Football Awards show (7pm EST). Patrick's grandfather Archie and my grandmother Katherine were siblings...I'm not into geneology, someone can tell me if we're second or third cousins. He was born without eyes, without functioning joints in his arms and legs (extremely limited mobility, can't flex his arms normally), along with stunted growth and other issues. At an early age, as you can read in some of the stories I've linked, he developed an interest in music and began to teach himself to play, first the piano, now the trumpet. He became the "poster child" for the annual Crusade for Children in the Louisville area...to our family, he was the little guy that brought his keyboard to every graduation party, birthday celebration, and wedding and entertained for hours on end. He was featured in People magazine a year or so back, then started getting even more attention after joining the UofL marching band this year. His dad has been the other great part of this story, quitting his old job and taking an overnight shift at UPS so he can be available to help his son with his college classes and be his legs out on the football field with the marching band. Patrick has certainly become 2006's Jason McElwain (the autistic team manager that came in and hit the six three-pointers last year)...kids that have overcome incredible odds to do the amazing."