9/15/2009
By Kevin Blackistone for FanHouse Reprinted with permission
The NHL MVP Alexander Ovechkin and some of his teammates and friends were sidled up on one side of the large circular cocktail bar in the National Building Museum. Washington tight end Chris Cooley answered questions from television reporters in a throng of other black-tie attired people not far away. Members of Washington's WNBA franchise, the Mystics, and players with other Washington-area teams hobnobbed as well.
All were at the annual Sneakerball in the nation's capital on Tuesday as a draw to help a local nonprofit called the Greater Washington Sports Alliance raise money for non-profits that help better the city through sports. They include groups like the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center and United for D.C., a literacy organization.
It was not unlike other banquets that take place in big cities across the country all the time where local athletes are the standouts and the subjects of tall tales to be told later.
And they were at this year's Sneakerball, too, at least until a short fellow named Frank Stephens walked onto the stage after dinner to accept an award posthumously.
The award was for Eunice Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy, who died Aug. 11 at age 88. She was to become the 16th person inducted into the alliance's Hall of Champions, right alongside Pro Football Hall of Fame members from Washington like Art Monk and Darrell Green, championship college basketball coach Gary Williams from Maryland and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis.
But Shriver wasn't being recalled for her athleticism or coaching or team stewardship. She was being remembered for dedicating the last half of her life to the organization she started called the Special Olympics.
"She's obviously incredibly deserving," alliance President Bob Sweeney said. "We just thought her life's mission ties very closely with the mission of the sports alliance's foundation, in giving every kid an opportunity. The thought was we would respect and honor and promote her cause."
Like most of us, I knew all about Shriver's Special Olympics. I recalled from stories in the wake of her death that she started it in 1962. That it expanded into 175 countries. That it aided at least 3 million people who fight to live with dignity no matter the affliction of some mental disability.
That is the quantification of Shriver's legacy. A young man named Frank Stephens is the qualification.
Stephens, 27, is a former D.C.-area athlete too. He lettered in sports at suburban Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Va.
He also graduated recently from a two-year program with the Special Olympics that trains people to speak on behalf of the organization about the mission and importance of Special Olympics to people like himself. Stephens has one extra chromosome in each cell in his body. He is one of our fellow human beings who we describe as having Down syndrome.
Stephens' biography pointed out:
"In the last year and a half, he has spoken to over 10,000 fans gathered for the 2007 Colonial Athletic Association basketball tournament, represented the Arc of Northern Virginia in local and state budget hearings and debates, been a principal participant in a PBS television special concerning public spending, starred in a 'get out the vote' Public Service Announcement aired nationwide, delivered a keynote address to the International Law Enforcement Torch Run Conference, and charmed countless groups with his stories of the power that Special Olympics has to transform lives and communities.
"When not speaking somewhere, Frank serves on the Board of Directors of Community Concepts, Inc, a non-profit corporation dedicated to advancing community based opportunities for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities or Mental Illness. He is also an aspiring actor with a theatre troupe known as Artstream and works days, baking gourmet dog biscuits and people pastries at Wildflour Bakery while awaiting his big break. In his leisure time Frank can often be found participating in one of the many sports offered by Special Olympics. He enjoys horsemanship, soccer, baseball, basketball and golf."
Most people who packed Sneakerball VI, as it was called, didn't notice the diminutive Stephens in his classic black tuxedo among all the big and tall and famous athletes decked out in their finest formalwear too. But once he began his acceptance speech on behalf of Eunice Shriver, it was everyone else who disappeared in his presence.
"There are still barriers, and the path God has given us to walk is not always an easy one," Stephens told the 750 or so in attendance. "As Robert Frost said, we 'have promises to keep and miles to go before [we] sleep.'
"But I, for one, am not afraid of the 'woods ... dark and deep' as long as I know that Mrs. Shriver will be watching over all of us. Her memory will encourage those of us who remain behind to just keep working to make things better."
Stephens didn't speak long. He didn't speak loud. But those of us who witnessed Frank Stephens' message won't soon forget it and, if we're fortunate, we never will.
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