Thanks to my friends at Resistance Pro Wrestling, I was once again a part of something very special. I was one of several members of the R Pro family on hand at the Southside Occupational Academy for the kickoff of the Resistance Pro Positive Outreach Program.
The southside school is filled with students of varying special needs. Through individualized transition education, these students are being prepared for life after school.
R Pro’s very own C Red, a teacher at the school, worked with R Pro owners Jacques and Gabriel Baron to start the R Pro Positive Outreach Program. As a broadcaster, manager and producer, C Red is a triple threat at R Pro. With the debut of POP, he may now be considered a quadruple threat.
The concept of POP is really a simple one, yet it is so important. Resistance Pro can be a positive force in the community.
As a wrestling company, R Pro is filled with larger than life stars, but it does not have to end when the bell rings to end each match. R Pro is in a position to give to the community. Like with Kicks For A Cure in the summer and the upcoming airplane pull for the Special Olympics, R Pro is proving to be a giver of more than just excellent wrestling matches.
Last Friday, C Red’s work came to fruition as a contingent from R Pro joined him at the school for a special assembly. R Pro’s Creative Director Billy Corgan, who also serves as the front man for the Smashing Pumpkins, was there, as were the Baron brothers. It all starts at the top for R Pro. Wrestlers Eric St. Vaughn, Matt Knicks, Marshe Rockett and Suge D were there, too, along with Head of Security Michael Bradley and R Pro jack-of-all-trades Stoney McGee.
I was there to cover the story, but C Red informed me I would be speaking, too. I should have known, because R Pro is about inclusion. I might be just a freelancing R Pro beat reporter, but I am treated as part of the R Pro family.
As we walked to the front of the room, I saw the excitement on the faces of the students. C Red started with a quick introduction of the program and the R Pro speakers. One by one, each of us spoke from the heart. I learned several things about my R Pro friends. In turn, they learned a bit more about me.
If not for the grace of God, I would not have been speaking to these students. I was born with a condition which could have been fatal or at the very least, left me paralyzed, mentally handicapped or in other various stages requiring continued support throughout my life. I am lucky. My family, friends and others never gave up on me. This is not a story I tell often, but I needed to tell my tale this day. I also felt loved and supported enough by my R Pro brothers to tell it.
After C Red closed out the event, the students responded with a thunderous round of applause. The R Pro team walked out of the room and embraced each other. It was clear that the experience moved us as much as it did the students. The next day at R Pro’s live wrestling event, we were all still feeling the effects.
If we reached one student in any way, brought joy to any student or had any positive influence in any way on any student, we did our job. I don’t have it as fact, but I saw their faces and I think we reached all of them in some way.
This was the debut of POP and it was a successful one. There will be more such events in the future and I will be at as many as I can attend. We all thought we would be imparting something positive to these students (and we did), but we were all touched positively as well.
I want to publicly thank C Red and R Pro for implementing the Positive Outreach Program.
