For this week’s blog, I picked Eddie Canales as one of my favorite heroes of the year. His story proved to inspire so many others, as well as myself. His son Chris was a senior and the star football player. He had three offers to play college football and on the most important night of his career, with four minutes left in the fourth quarter he made a touchdown-saving tackle according to the story. However, something went wrong and he suffered a spinal cord injury ending his dreams. Chris almost died twice in the beginning.
Seeing the pain his son had gone through, Eddie decided that it was not fair. He quit his job to become his son’s full time caregiver. Chris struggled with depression and his father wanted to do everything possible to cheer him up. He started a non-profit organization to provide support for those who go through the same career ending injuries. ‘Gridiron Heroes’ is what the organization is called and it now grew to 19 players in Texas. Most organizations of this tpe raise money for medical research, but form the start Eddie and Chris wanted to provide emotional support. Whenever someone joins them, they drive to visit them no matter where they live in Texas. Eddie provides a light in the dark for many families, and Chris encourages the players as a mentor.
I think it is so beautiful that a father cares about his son so much to go through everything with him. I also think its amazing that not only does he want to help his own son, but other people’s sons as well. He was able to turn a negative experience into something others can look at as positive. Instead of being bitter about the accident, he did a 180 and turned everything around. That is admirable.
Recent Comments