Community responds to letter condemning athlete service brings comments
Students and athletes have
phenomenal dedication to service
I am outraged at the letter in Friday's Observer, criticizing Notre Dame student athletes for helping host a Christmas party for kids with cancer. Shame on this writer. I have been involved in many make-a-wish events at Notre Dame. Young cancer victims, in particular, enjoy visiting Notre Dame, the football stadium and the Joyce Center and meeting with Notre Dame student athletes. Hats off to Jennifer Crittendon, Eric Guerra and all the kind and caring Notre Dame student athletes who give so freely of their time through Notre Dame's Life Skills Program. I have spoken to nursing home residents, hospital staff members and parents, whose lives have been touched because one of our student athletes has visited.
I was friends with a 95-year old man, who until his dying day, raved about that day when the Notre Dame Cheer Squad visited his assisted living residence. I don't recall him ever complaining that he couldn't achieve the feats of Mike Brown and John Taggart, the greatest Leprechaun and cheerleader in Notre Dame history.
The mean-spirited person who blasted our student athletes is also completely wrong about the aspirations of young people with cancer and other life threatening illnesses. These young persons cherish dreams. They love to be in the presence of people more fortunate than they are. Incidentally, they also love to be entertained by "regular" students (who also have something "these children can't achieve"). Following the misguided reasoning of the letter writer, apparently cancer victims should only meet with other victims.
By the way, one of the most heroic student athletes at Notre Dame is Joe Recendez. Joe volunteers to take a daily pounding from the Notre Dame football team, as a walk-on player. Joe is successfully battling cancer.
While Joey Getherall has been blessed with relatively good health at Notre Dame (even though he has played through numerous injuries) he was not blessed with much height and weight. I have seen how Joey has interacted with young persons and cancer victims. I assure you that these children would rather spend one minute with Joey Getherall than to listen to the blathering of this malcontent letter writer. Ask Scott Delgadillo how he feels about Joey, Bob Davie, Grant Irons, Rudy and the many Notre Dame football team members who shared time with him.
The person best known for visiting young sick people was Babe Ruth. Despite his baseball fame and proclivity to misbehave off the field, Babe Ruth was never known to have turned down a request to visit a sick child. It's a good thing those thousands of children are not on The Observer mailing list.
There is no student body in the country which donates more of its time to helping those less fortunate. If this letter writer were not so ignorant about Notre Dame, he would know that. The fact that the media is more likely to highlight the activities of celebrity athletes, is not the fault of Notre Dame.
My suggestion to the letter writer is to quit whining and stop by the Center for Social Concerns and volunteer his time.
Cappy Gagnon
Class of '66
January 21, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, January 22, 2001
