Saturday, October 12, 2013

Our Amazing Day at Lane Stadium

There are just some days in this life that you feel blessed and your cup of gratitude is overflowing. Last week we were blessed with the opportunity to be Special Spectators at the UVA football game. One week later I was once again attending a Special Spectator event, but I was closer to home at Virginia Tech and I was the volunteer!

We met amazing families and our group of roughly 25 people was blessed with a wonderful day at Lane Stadium. As the volunteer it was my job to shepherd the group and work with the AMAZING team from the VT athletic office that escorted us around today. My eyes kept "misting" watching this amazing group of kids enjoy a special day of VT football.


Our first stop was Bill Roth's sound booth where we met the Voice of the Hokies.  David really got into the action and tried on Bill Roth's headset.  The view from the sound booth was amazing and the Chris Burnop and Bill Roth were super to our Special Spectator kids. 

David pretended to be calling the game.  We have listened to Bill Roth so much over the years that we were a little star struck meeting him. 



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Here is most of our group in the sound booth.  What an amazing memory for these kids.
While we were waiting for Coach Beamer, we were on the practice field and Coach Beamer and some of his players came out to practice a few minutes before getting ready.  Our kids in our group just stared at these players and legendary coach twenty feet from us running a few drills. 

Then the legend himself, Coach Frank Beamer came right over to the kids in our group.  He was gracious and so sweet with them.  David yelled "Hey hank!" because he truly thinks his name is Hank instead of Frank.  Coach Beamer did not seem to mind:)  He was only with us a few short moments but it was a precious time for the kids in our group. 

After meeting with Coach Beamer, we were allowed to walk through the tunnel like the players do.  The players have a tradition of touching the Hokie Stone before hitting the field and our kids were allowed to do the same.  Here is Kyle!



David was able to touch the Hokie Stone thanks to Pops. 


Me and my two boys on the field pregame.  All the families had a few moments on the field to get pictures and watch the players. 

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David and the lovely dance ladies.  The Hokie bird, the cheerleaders, and the dance team visited our tailgate to meet with the kids.  Several of the girls in our group were so excited to meet the real cheerleaders and Hokie Bird!!
This little girl captured my heart.  Bailee is beautiful and she had so much fun cheering for her Hokies.  Two of the cheerleaders were holding her and this was another moment my eyes were misting.  Precious!  This is what it is all about!!! 

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My boys with the Hokie Bird!  The Hokie Bird missed us originally at our tailgate and he came back to make sure that he got to meet the kids in our group. 

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Group Photo!!
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David with the Corp of Cadets and the cannon!  While we were coming out of the tunnel and going to our seats (a huge group of about 25 people) this man yelled that the Corp of coming through and that we were in the way of about 1000 cadets!  I had to laugh at hime because we were doing exactly what our escorts from the Athletic Office were telling us to do!  We were squished up against the way while 1000 cadets came through!  It was hilarious because we were stuck and that corp leader guy did not like that we were messing up his formations!! 
Enter sandman!  David loves Hokie games and he loves when the team comes out to Enter Sandman!! Add caption


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Kyle was so excited that he was standing near Coach Beamer in the group picture.  This group picture was the one that was on  the Jumbotron during halftime of the game.  VT recognized our group from Special Spectators and put the group picture of all of the kids on the screen. 

Today was simply awesome.  As the volunteer I was blessed by the families I got to meet, blessed to watch this awesome group of kids have VIP treatment at Lane Stadium, and blessed that my boys were with me.  Special  Spectators is an awesome organization that blessed seriously ill children with magical game day experiences.  Please like them on facebook to see all the smiles and magic they are blessing kids (like my David) with each football season.  Today I was humbled and blessed to witness the faces of these kids and parents enjoying a day at Lane Stadium that none of us will ever forget!

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