Students recently had the opportunity to listen to inspirational speaker Lance Allred, a former NBA player who played for the Cleveland Cavs in the early 2000’s. He played with Lebron and was also the first ever legally deaf player in the NBA.
Allred said that as a kid it was very difficult to play with 80% hearing loss, but he did not let his disability get in the way of him pursuing his dream of playing in the NBA.
Mr. Haderlie explained that the school has a contract with the Stand4Kind group and didn’t know who was going speak. Haderlie appreciated Allred’s message because he wanted students to learn that it is ok to face tough things in life, work through them, and always choose to be kind.
Junior Cooper Lawson was in the auditorium for Allred’s message. He said, “ I learned that you have to be able to get knocked down in life and then be able to get back up and fight that adversity head on.” Lawson “really liked” the assembly and would definitely listen to other assemblies similar to it.
Sophomore Maya Hyde found Allred’s words “inspirational” and walked out of the assembly with the message Haderlie wanted students to learn. “You have to be uncomfortable and go through hard thing to grow and become better at something,” said Hyde.
Allred’s experience with using adversity to make his life better and help his dreams come true made this assembly meaningful for the student body. Hopefully, more inspirational people like him will visit to teach and inspire students for school assemblies.
