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 momentous. 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 drolling 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.
Trampolineone@webtv.net
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