My Rewarding Experience

As most of you know, I'm a huge Jets fan and a frequent user of Twitter.  Two weeks ago, the all knowing Jets Freak, Bassett from "The Jets Blog" posted tweet linking to a story about Larry Grantham and his Superbowl III Ring being up for auction.  It was entitled PLEASE READ and it did it's trick, it caught my attention.

Larry Grantham had fallen on rough times concerning his health, and his medical bills were racking up.  Without the knowledge of his friends or family, he contacted an auction firm and put up his prize possession up for sale.  Bassett and others were rallying the troops to see if we could raise the money needed to buy the ring back for Larry.

The first thing I did was contact "Freedom House Foundation", the firm collecting donations on Larry's behalf and made a personal financial contribution.  You see, Larry had been an alcoholic for a portion of his life, and I had read he had personally raised awareness and funds in excess of a Million dollars to help that foundation.  The least we could do is return the favor.  Larry never asked for help, yet people were willing to do it and they did in droves.

I had heard rumors that the Jets organization caught wind of this story and could have been responsible for getting the ring back.  If this is the case, my hats off to the Jets organization and it's ownership.  It was the "RIGHT" thing to do.  I also knew that a current Jets player, Kerry Rhodes used twitter and I had tweeted him while he was at the Pro-Bowl.  His response was awesome:

"wen is it needed and how much is it"

The lesson I got out of this is whenever you have the ability, help out the less fortunate without looking for an award.  I wasn't expecting anything for my part in helping with the awareness of the issue, but when I got a letter from Larry thanking me, it made me feel VERY GOOD.

I have since purchased the card I show in this story and I plan to frame the letter and the card and hang it on my wall as reminder to myself that when I can, help those in need.