UPDATE: HERE IS THE FINAL QUILT TOP READY FOR MACHINE QUILTING. THE DRAWING WILL TAKE PLACE THE WEEKEND OF FEB 11-12TH SO PLEASE SUPPORT DALE! GOOD LUCK :)
I've been thinking about things that really matter. Such a sobering subject don't you think? Sometimes a reality check is needed to jar us back to what's really important. I and my family experienced a wake-up call on Jan. 4th. What's so important about January 4th you ask? Well.....
(Note: My family is a wrestling family. My boys have wrestled since they were very young and we have enjoyed supporting them throughout the years. They have had their fair share of bumps, bruises and yes, even serious injuries, but thankfully they've been able to continue a sport they love. Wrestling has allowed us as a family to connect and share the ups and downs of life together. We've been excited when my boys have done well and given hugs when they've not. All in all, wrestling has taught my boys the value of hard work, dedication and perserverance. Something I'm sure they'll fall back on when facing new challenges in the world around them.)
January 4th was another ordinary day. Nothing too special. Many things to get done, checked off the list and accomplished. What do I fix for dinner? How am I going to get AQ Flouncy Flowers ready to sell? Did all the kids get their homework done and handed in? What does hubby need from me now? Questions and endless thoughts going through my head. Pretty much a normal day. After my sons came home from wrestling practice, I found out a fellow wrestler had been injured. Nothing too shocking in those words and I thought he'd bounce back in a day or so. Sadly I learned the following day that this young 17 year old boy was facing life as a quadriplegic. How do you wrap your brain around such sobering news? This just as easily could have been one of my boys facing such a terrifying future. Since that day I've been thinking about how much we all take for granted. The ability to move, have good health and just do what we want every day. We (or more likely I) often focus on those mindless tasks.. never taking the time to really enjoy the day around me or appreciate the simple things in life. This tragic accident has brought a new awareness of how I approach each new day. Maybe by sharing this horrible tragedy I can bring a sense of how wonderful YOUR life is and how good life really can be! Be thankful. Every day. Because you really never know when life could change in an instant....
By Bill Oram
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jan 15 2011 06:00PMUpdated Jan 16, 2011 12:20AM
They call him “Super Dale.”
The people in this mountain town all know Dale Lawrence. He’s the funny kid on the wrestling team. The nice one whose grin is gapped, goofy and unvarying.
“He’s really just a kid that spreads goodness around him,” Wasatch High Principal Paul Sweat said.
They call him Super Dale for a reason. As a running back on the Wasatch football team, Lawrence smeared a strip of eye black across the top half of his face. It looked like a superhero’s mask, senior Tyson Kohler said, and the nickname stuck.
In practice on Jan. 4, Lawrence was wrestling a teammate in a 20-second drill. Coach Wade Discher told the wrestlers to imagine that the state championship was on the line. As Lawrence tried to escape a basic hold called the ball and chain, however, his neck contorted and his C4 vertebra snapped into his spinal cord.
“He was just laying there,” said sophomore Aryan Shibonis, “not moving.”
Paramedics came and the wrestling room in the high school’s basement was cleared. The team didn’t know how serious Lawrence’s injury was until Discher sent them a text message a couple of hours later.
Super Dale was going into surgery. And he was paralyzed from the neck down... continue story
blocks getting ready to sew together...
**** After this horrible accident I felt very helpless. I wanted to do something but what?? After a lot of thinking I decided to make a hand pieced quilt to be part of a drawing to help raise money for Dale's medical expenses.. This drawing is currently taking place in the wrestling community but I decided to advertise it here so others who'd like to can be apart of this quilt drawing. If you'd like to help (and maybe win a beautiful quilt in the process!!!) please email me at artfullyquaint@gmail.com and let me know the # of tickets you'd like and I'll send you my paypal info. 100% of the monies raised will be donated to Dale's family. Thanks again and good luck!
1 ticket = $3
2 tickets = $5
5 tickets = $10
15 tickets = $20
More info about Dale:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pray-for-Super-Dale/184539114907821?v=wall
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