I read this story last week, and was moved on multiple levels. Lisa M. Fenn is a producer with ESPN, a sports network…and she clearly and unabashedly crossed the neutral line of journalism and got in deep with the folks of one of her stories. She smashed the neutralism of journalism and stayed with a pair of guys whom she has fallen in love with.
Bummer that we can’t see the ESPN story update as we aren’t in the US.
The original story is here…it’s 9 minutes long…and worth every minute of a coffee break…when two people face their own adversity with humor and grit and the profound support of another, it is amazing what can be done. Dartanyon and Leroy were short on parents, food, a safe environment. When a guy with low vision carries a guy with no legs–well, the help they provide each other goes beyond the practical:
The video starts…
“Through it all, what would you do with for a friend?”
Lisa knows…she got to know the pair over a number of months doing the story.
She knows what they did for each other.
And she knows what they inspired her to do for them.
She helped them with paperwork, attend appointments, fix their teeth. She helped Dartanyon connect with the Olympic Judo team…and she and Leroy were there when he won a bronze medal at the Olympics in England in 2012 after only 2 years in the sport. She will be there with Leroy graduates from college next month. She has done a lot for her friends…and she still does.
She has helped them. Because she loves them. And that connection was life changing…literally.
Dartanyon and Leroy have taught me much about the power of connection in the midst of adversity.
And Lisa M. Fenn has taught me much about the power of connection to give a hand up…to go outside of one’s comfort zone in ways that changed the lives of those young men…and in ways that changed her, too.
Thanx, guys. Muchly, thanx.
Write a Comment