11-year-old Isaiah Gwin throws a football on June 26, 2013, during a CampAbility field trip at Center Grove High School.
Daily Journal Archives
News from around Johnson County as reported on June 27 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 2013, one of the stories on the front page of the Daily Journal was dedicated to special needs kids enjoying football camp fun.
“Yells and screams rang out as the fumbled football rolled around in the end zone,” the story began.
“Isaiah Gwin, an 11-year-old Indianapolis boy, looked up from the tackling dummy he had clobbered and looked for the ball. All around him, Center Grove High School football players encouraged him, shouting for him to grab the ball and spike it.”
With a wide smile, he pounced on the ball, tumbled on the field and drove it toward the ground.
Gwin was one of 16 special needs children who were football stars of the day through a special program offered by the Center Grove football team. Partnering with the Easter Seals Crossroads, the school set up its own football camp for the children.
They ran drills through cones and pylons, caught passes from the players and rushed out onto the field like it was a Friday night. They walked through the locker room, decorated with their names and experienced what Trojan players went through before a game.
“We wanted to make them feel like we do,” said Lane Morris, a senior running back for the team.
The football program was a part of CampAbility, an annual summer camp for special needs children ages 5 to 11 put on by Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis. The camp was designed to provide kids with special needs or disabilities a traditional day-camp experience, said Joelle Samples, the manager of respite services for Easter Seals Crossroads and organizer of the camp.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2005
A payroll system glitch led to the IRS sending Greenwood teachers notices saying they had to pay extra taxes because the glitch led them to believe teachers were making thousands of dollars extra.
1994
Three Johnson County teens brought home top honors during the state championship finals of the Indiana High School Rodeo Association.
1984
young errant litterbug came clean in a letter to the Greenwood Police Department.
