Today we rode into Shreveport, LA to the Shriner’s Hospital. We have already met the Masons and Shriners before but walking into their largest philanthropic contribution to society was stunning. The moment we stepped in the hospital, it was easy for us to tell why so many children feel at ease when taking on the sometimes monumental challenges while surrounded by those walls.

While inside, myself and two of my teammates met two girls named Roxanne and Gabrielle; Roxanne was from Honduras and Gabrielle from Ecuador. Roxanne, with whom I spoke the most, is yet another match to the fire of what we do. She just graduated high school and has been in the US for 3 months after having surgery to try and correct an incorrect rotation of her left leg due to Cerebral Palsy. We spoke about how when she was diagnosed at a young age her doctors told her mother not to expect anything from her for the rest of her life. “They told my mother, ‘She won’t be able to walk and she won’t be able to learn, we would also tell you to not try to teach her to speak. Don’t expect anything from her.’” Today, Roxanne speaks both Spanish and English perfectly, though her English includes quite a few more giggles and she has just applied to Lousiana Tech for next fall to pursue a degree in medicine. On top of the inspiration she gave directly to me, the guys and I enjoyed breaking her usual serious demeanor. For ten minutes straight we made her laugh until she was crying, putting a time out on our conversation, but a few gratefully sore cheeks on everyone around. Roxanne, I don’t believe that you don’t usually laugh like that.

Shreveport was inspiring…but on to Monroe!

Today we arrived in Dallas to find that God graced us with some amazing cloud cover. The cool wind was something we hadn’t felt for the 5 weeks we had been on this Journey. Then they let open the rain…another first for our trip and of course, it rains out our ride into my home town. However, I didn’t let it bring me down as I knew that I would have friends and family waiting for me at our arrival.

After a proclamation from the Mayor of Arlington and the Mayor of Dallas we were greeted by lines of smiling faces and clapping hands from the participants of the Bachman Recreational Center, a facility that strongly encourages an active role for people with disabilities. We made our way inside and preformed another one of our Kid’s on the Block puppet shows to a particularly talkative crowd.

Our evening was the highlight of our day off activities with a 3 hour spat with Top Golf- its like an extremely high tech driving range with targets and a point system. If there is anyone in Dallas reading this that has yet to play; go now! Drop whatever you are doing: work, chores, or helping your brother/sister/son/daughter with homework and go now. It will be the greatest night you have had in a while, guaranteed.

The next morning we all prepared for our pool party at the Rise School at a local church; a school that specializes in caring for kids with disabilities. We all arrived with in our swim suits and towels and strolled out into the courtyard expecting full well a glistening light blue oasis to cool off our legs. No, we didn’t find a swampland of a Louisiana Bayou (no, this is something we will surely find in a few days). we found approximately 6 kiddy pools dispersed among the outdoor area. I wish you all could have seen our faces. Not quite disappointment but more like the face most people have when I tell them that we DO actually get snow about once a year in Texas-complete astonishment. But we did not expect what happened next. Children began pouring out of the double doors like open floodgates and jumping into the pools. Most of these children had some disability whether it be down’s syndrome (which was most of the case) or some sort of physical disability. I began to draw the attention of a young girl, about 5 or 6, by the name of Kacey. Her first word’s to me were, “Bounce me! Bounce me!” And with her arms in the air I lifted her to what seemed to her the heights of the planes in the sky. This quickly turned into “1…2…3…FOUR times!!”- the number of times she wanted me to spin her in the air. Soon enough her friend, about 4 years old, joined in on the fun and before I knew it, I had one of them on each hip, spinning myself dizzy. The pure happiness that these girls had inside of them was contageous. It is times like this that we are shown true and pure love…from girls only 4 and 5 years old. Reluctant to leave, we set off for our evening’s events: Whirly Ball.

The game Whirly Ball is a little like lacross in bumper cars, except a lot less athletic and, save a few full on body throws with said cars, quite a bit safer. A Pi Alpha (men that have finished the Journey of Hope in previous years) and another Pi Kappa Phi brother sponsored the event and truly concluded our Dallas trip with a fun filled bang.