Tim Tebow is a winner.
I don’t care if he ever plays another down in the NFL. Don’t care if he never hits a curve as a Major League Baseball player. Don’t care if he fails at yet another professional sport.
Tebow wins big because of his compassion to make the world a better place.
This is not a cliché. How could you not love a man who reaches out of special needs children all over the world, and gives them a moment they will remember forevermore?
Abigail Dowell would tell you all about it if she could. She just can’t, not in words anyway. She is 18 and can’t talk. Down’s Syndrome. Autism. She lives in a world that closes its doors every day.
Until Saturday night. Her night. “Abby,” wearing a beautiful red prom gown and white jacket, walked the red carpet surrounded on both sides by people clapping and cheering every step. She danced. She laughed. She had the time of her life.
Thank you, Tim Tebow.
His kind fingerprints are all over the “Night to Shine” event, simultaneously hosted by 375 churches in all 50 states and 11 countries on six continents, including Albania, Canada, Ecuador, Haiti, Kenya, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, and the U.S.
Tebow’s foundation made it happen for Abby and an estimated 75,000 other adolescents and teenagers 14 years and older. The foundation contributes more than $3 million in financial grants to assist churches in hosting the event, now in its third year. The concept is simple: Give special-needs children a night when they rule the world. Each one of them was crowned a King or a Queen.
“Every one of those kids felt like a normal, big-time kid who was at an event that was really special,” said Stephen Dowell, Abby’s dad and an Orlando Sentinel photojournalist who accompanied his daughter to the event in Clermont.
Tebow made it to five of the proms, starting with Thursday night in Haiti. He then put in some serious frequent flyer miles, going from Fort Collins, Colorado to San Antonio, Texas, to stops in Ormond Beach and Jacksonville in Florida.
Oh the memories. Not just for the kids. Ask Tebow. One quick story he shares on the foundation website:
“When I was at one of the proms last year, a beautifully dressed queen of the prom was hugging me when the girl’s mom leaned over and whispered with tears in her eyes, ‘My daughter will never get married and she will never have children, but tonight you made her feel like a princess!”
This is why Tebow rocks, and why his impact is transcendental. I am one of those folks who believe that Tebow has zero shot playing in the NFL or MLB.
There is documentation. No need to regurgitate all the NFL stuff. As for baseball — Tebow’s latest love interest — he will not be invited to the New York Mets spring-training camp after signing a minor-league deal with the team in September. He remains an iffy prospect at best after hitting .194 with three doubles, two RBIs and eight walks while striking out 20 times in 62 at-bats in the Arizona Fall League.
But Tebow’s ardent fans and ardent haters can’t separate the two personas. “Tebow just needs a chance.” Rinse and repeat, and wait for the messy food fight to errupt on social media.
Sigh. Tebow doesn’t need to elevate his game in order to elevate the world. Everybody always talks about “saving one child.” Tebow has that goal beat by 74,999.
One night matters.
“She was amazed,” Dowell said of Abby. “Every event that we go to, we have to make sure to keep her out of the fray, to keep her safe. This one they had a buddy for everyone. Abby had a former teacher as her escort to make sure she wouldn’t feel awkward.”
Lights. Balloons. Corsages. Boutonnieres. Music….Magic.
Keep doing what you do, Mr. Tebow.
Strikeouts or incomplete passes are completely irrelevant in your life.
The smiles on the faces of children like Abby Dowell complete your boxscore.
Boom. Out of the park.
Frank Vogel discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Frank Vogel discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Frank Vogel discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Frank Vogel discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Tim Tebow Foundation’s "Night to Shine" Special Needs Prom at Real Life Christian Church in Clermont, Florida, on Friday, February 10, 2017.
Tim Tebow Foundation’s “Night to Shine” Special Needs Prom at Real Life Christian Church in Clermont, Florida, on Friday, February 10, 2017.
Evan Fournier discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Evan Fournier discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Nikola Vucevic discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Nikola Vucevic discusses the Orlando Magic’s 112-80 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in this postgame video
Frank Vogel previews the Orlando Magic’s game against the Dallas Mavericks in this shootaround video
Frank Vogel previews the Orlando Magic’s game against the Dallas Mavericks in this shootaround video
@gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com; @georgediaz on Twitter.
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