A young boy carried his baseball and bat to home plate on an empty baseball field. As he settled into his batter’s stance, he shouted: “I am the world’s best home-run hitter!”

He tossed the ball in the air, swung, and missed: “Strike one,” he said.

Shaking off the first swing and getting ready for his next attempt, the little ballplayer once more told the empty baseball diamond: “I am the world’s best home-run hitter!”

Again he lobbed the ball into the air, and again he missed it: “Strike two.”

Now the boy was really hunkering down to hit the ball, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, “I am the world’s best home-run hitter!”

He tossed the baseball, swinging with all of his might… and connected only with air. “Strike three,” the little boy said to himself, deflated… until suddenly his face lit up with a giant grin.

“What do you know — I am the world’s best pitcher!” The young ballplayer nestled into his batter’s crouch, smiling, and pitched the ball upward.

Be open-minded, open-hearted, and open to giving your best effort. You will discover strong joy.

Amy writes:

“Thank you for the vision of “Give Running” (helping others to run, who can’t) and I’m excited to tell you that these shoes may be put to work as early as this weekend! This weekend is the Ogden Marathon, and the Teen Center is encouraging their youth to participate in a 5K run that is affiliated with the event. There will be about 10,000 runners here this weekend, and there is an excellent chance that someone will be wearing ‘GiveRunning’ donated shoes! Best of luck to you in your cause. Thanks again for your encouragement and support!”

“Everybody can be great,” Dr. King said, “because anybody can serve.” The scouts and other supporters advancing Give Running’s mission in Utah certainly prove the truth — and greatness — in Dr. King’s call to action.

But Mister Phiri was pointing down at my feet.

“Sandals aren’t allowed,” he said. “We require students to wear proper footwear at all times, so please go home and change.”

I looked down at my flip-flops, which had certainly seen better days. The rubber connecting the sole had broken on one foot, forcing me to carry in my pocket a crochet needle and bit of rope for emergency repairs. I had no shoes at home. I had to think quickly.

“Mister headmaster, sir,”  I said. “I would put on proper footwear, but since I live in Wimbe, I must cross two streams to get here. and because it’s the rainy season, you can imagine how the mud will destroy my good leather shoes. My mother wouldn’t have it.”

He scrunched his eyebrows and considered this. I prayed it would work.

“Okay,” he said. “It’s fine for now, but once the rains are over, I want to see you in proper footwear.”

From The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

The Texas Tech nursing program scholarship in his honor will certainly not only provide financial assistance and opportunities for deserving students in the years to come — but will also serve as an inspiration, challenging these recipients to positively impact their communities for Jorge and everyone who belongs to his team.

To learn more and contribute, please visit Team Jorge’s online fundraising page.

Here is an excerpt from Nicoel’s research and writings on behalf of Give Running:

Yet another soil based parasite are Chigoe Fleas, the female flea burrows into the skin of the foot and lives there for two weeks while developing eggs. The eggs stay in the foot while developing until they hatch, this can cause irritation and infection. Without shoes, children are not only exposed to horrible diseases like the ones above, they also aren’t able to attend school. How is a child to break the cycle of poverty without the opportunity of an education? Donating pairs of shoes to children in need could save their lives both physically, by preventing disease, and mentally, by providing education.

Pretty soon he grew tired of carrying the tennis ball, so he began tossing and bouncing the ball – sometimes having to sprint or veer off course to catch up to it – until the end of his run.

When the runner checked his watch, he discovered he had just run his fastest time ever for that route. Since he was having so much fun, and taking the run one ball toss at a time, he didn’t realize how hard he was running.

The runner’s name was Ken Martin, and he was America’s fastest marathoner that year (1989).

Running is, above all, meant to be play. Let’s keep it that way.

In a hypothetical experiment, behavioral scientists took five apes and placed them in a large enclosure. Inside this enclosure was a set of stairs and at the top was a bundle of bananas.

A few minutes pass and one of the apes notices the bananas and starts to climb the stairs. Immediately, all five apes are sprayed with freezing cold water for one minute and the ape is repelled from climbing the stairs.

A few hours pass and a different ape makes an attempt to climb the stairs to get the bananas. He too is driven back and all five apes sprayed with the freezing cold water for one minute. The water is put away and never used again. (Note that this is actually very cruel and should never be done.)

The scientists replace one of the original apes in the enclosure with another ape that has never experienced the freezing cold water. Almost immediately the new ape notices the bananas and starts to climb the stairs when the other four apes gang up on him and start to beat him up.

Understandably, the other four apes have associated climbing the stairs with the unpleasantly cold water and will not allow the group to get sprayed again.

A while passes and the scientists replace one more ape with a new one. He too attempts to climb the stairs to get the bananas. All four apes pounce on him including the first new ape who has no idea why he is so enthusiastically beating this other ape up or even why he was pounced on in the first place.

The scientists continue replacing the original apes with new ones until finally there are five apes in the enclosure who have never experienced the freezing cold water being sprayed on them. Nevertheless, not one of the apes ever attempts to climb the stairs again.

Why not?

Because that’s the way things have always been done around here.

The Moral

Beyond not treating animals cruelly, always question why something is done a particular way. Humans are raised to be cooperative and function positively in society, but sometimes we forget that there is always a reason for and a better way of doing things.

I stumbled across making people run 10 km before I gave them anything. This way, women and children finish a race feeling they deserve what I am giving. Someone walks two inches taller in a pair of shoes, not only in height, but because of a sense of dignity. Plus, you have the health issue. If you are walking through the mud, sewage and slime in a Kenyan slum there are little worms, called hookworms, that enter the body through the toenail and attack the immune system. Six hundred million people have this affliction, and the overwhelming majority are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Show someone a hookworm, and its effects, and they will wear the shoes! Also Africans want to progress. They are just lacking what we take for granted. It’s a little step in the right direction.

I say let’s keep stepping forward.