Dribble for the Cure at UCLA

Matt and Amir, his best friend (since they were both 2 years old!) , did Dribble for the Cure at UCLA to raise funds for Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Well, I did the fundraising by asking if anyone at my office would like to sponsor Matt. Six of my coworkers stepped forward and donated money to him (well, to the charity!).

I had no idea how Matt would do. In the past Matt has gotten overwhelmed by the crowds and the noise at the walk for charity type of events. At the charity walk near my office earlier in the year, Matt ran from the noise and crowd at the start of the walk but did stand out in front of my office and cheer on the crowd as they passed us. Once they passed us, he refused to go back to the event (too noisy and chaotic for him) so we just went home.

When Kerri told me about Dribble for the Cure and asked us to join them, I warned her that she and Amir may end up doing the course without us - but we would deal with whatever happened when it happened. While driving to UCLA, Matt and I talked about what we thought the event would be like. We strategized ideas of how he could handle the noise - like covering his ears - and what we should do about the crowds of people - he should stay close to me. I told him that I thought we were going to have a great time.

Matt and I arrived before Kerri and Amir. As directed, we brought a basketball from home for Matt to use on the course. While I waited in line to register us, he practiced dribbling and passes against a wall (a number of other boys were doing the same so I just kept an eye on him and let him be). He was so busy with his basketball that he did not notice the crush of people around us.

His fundraising level awarded him a new basketball. Very exciting. We walked back to the car to put away the old basketball from home. Matt did not let go of his new basketball.

Our timing was perfect. As we were leaving the garage, Kerri and Amir arrived. I took the boys to a quiet corner of the plaza to practice dribbling and passing while Kerri registered. Kerri realized that I missed a whole section of the signing in portion and hadn't yet received my gift bags and t-shirts. Thank goodness for Kerri's awareness! Would have hated to miss out on our goodies and new t-shirts!

We stayed in our quiet corner during the before the walk speeches and allowed the crush of people to start and the band to finish playing before we joined the walk. We were the true tail of the walk. BUT Matt did the whole course!! He dribbled his new basketball the whole way. Amir didn't want to go at Matt's slower pace so he and Kerri would race ahead at Amir's pace and then waited for us at different points along the course. They would join us for a time and then off Amir would go.

The course ended at the gym. As we were the last of the walkers, a portion of the gym was filled with the other walkers. Matt did a great job handling the noise and crowd. He followed Kerri and Amir across the gym floor and up the stairs. We sat above the bulk of the people.

After the speeches and while the majority of the people were leaving the gym, we let the boys join the crowd of kids clusters around the basketball hoops and attempt to shot baskets. Amir made a good number of his shots. Matt had fun trying.

After a lunch on the campus, we went our separate ways. Amir had basketball practice and I had one tired boy on my hands. After all, he did the whole walk, he successfully handled the mass of people, and he spent time with his best friend. It was a full, fun day.