Matt has Spastic Cerebral Palsy, but opted to run in Field Day at Colonial Hills Elementary School despite being given the option to sit it out.
“Here comes Mrs. Blaine the Gym teacher” written on the screen makes me cry every time.

Gosh, you gym teachers and all of you out there who help kids do it just one more time. Do you know how important you are? While indeed the ending when everyone comes to encourage Mattie is fantastic, I see the lone gym teacher walking with him and supporting him because that is you and that is me.
There are so many times after school when a child is struggling, and we’re the one person say, “you can do it.” There are times on the playing field when a child wants to quit and your “you can do it” is the only thing that keeps them going. Do you see the power in our encouragement? Do you see the effort that it took Mattie to run that? The other kids ran and may have finished first, but the effort required by this young man was an Olympic effort. It was Herculean. It was impossibly hard.

And this my friends, is nobility. Encouraging a child to be great even when we’re the only one beside them. Everyone sees the impressive finish but what most people don’t see is that there was first a teacher or parent walking alongside humbly saying, “you can do it, keep going.” Whew! Not sure I have any more tears to keep going.