So May is ending and as I glance at a calendar to get my summer in line I notice that it was National Fitness Month, National Bike Month and National Foster Care Awareness Month.
I had also been doing some research on Babe Ruth, and had recently read an article on a University of New Orleans basketball recruit. Possessing the attention span of a gnat, these tangents all brought me around to checking out a Division I basketball coach for the Privateers of UNO named Mark Slessinger.
I found out he is in his first Division I head coaching job and that he is a whirlwind of energy. He is beloved by his players, successful on the recruiting trail, admired throughout the entire university, and had been trying to have a baby with his wife for years. Friends suggested they become foster parents.
Last year, during his first season at UNO, Mark and his wife Toni took the required classes, passed the required interviews and were certified to become foster parents. They waited for the call that would deliver their first child in need to their home. Last July, the call came. Even though they had prepared their home with the bare necessities for an arrival, there were still items to get. Apparently, Mark rushed off to the store as he had two hours to stock up before a 6 month old girl was to be dropped at their home.
Slessinger was not in any position to become a foster parent last year. As a first time head coach in a program trying to make headway in the cutthroat world of college hoops, he couldn't possibly have time and additional energy to devote to an infant with a heartbreaking story could he? Well, after finishing practice and finishing the rushed shopping, Mark was home to greet his new little bundle. His energy levels were amazingly high enough (just try having the energy for one season of Division I basketball recruiting) and they had that baby for 10 months while her mom was working to rehabilitate. The foster system has rehabilitation as the main goal and preparing children to be returned to their birth parents as well once they are ready. But now the phone rang again.
As the phone was ringing with the news of another baby in need, Slessinger must be maxed out for devotion and energy, right? Well...
Before his hiring at UNO, he coached at Northwestern State. The women's softball team there didn't have a mascot to represent them for games. Enter Mark, in the Demon costume, cheering on the team. They needed a guy to wear the crawfish costume for the Crawfish Mambo at UNO in May. Guess who? You think Calipari or Pitino dress up as a large red lobster wannabe very often? He gets to know each Special Olympian personally so he can announce them over the microphone with a special story during the UNO clinic. Recruits to the campus for basketball get to meet everybody in the program. To Slessinger, "everybody" is more than you think. The janitors, landscapers and maintenance workers are part of his program and each one is introduced by name to incoming players.
So someone had to answer that ringing phone last month. Might as well be Mark and Toni since the news was another baby was in need of a home. With the first baby girl still there, a 14 month old boy was about to be added. They were given 15 minutes to make a decision and the baby was already there when Slessinger arrived home a couple of hours later after practice. Off to the store he went.
I read about his story because it broke and went public and during that time, Mark only mentioned a hundred times that he was not a hero. He mentioned a hundred times too that it was National Foster Care Awareness Month trying to bring as much attention to the cause as he could. Not for himself, but for those children. Good job on one front Mark with the many mentions of foster care, but you missed it by a mile on the hero aspect.
Foster parents open their hearts and homes to these children and that is heroic enough. As Mark was being interviewed about his story, he was questioned on how him and his wife don't get attached to the children since they know eventually the kids will be returned. He immediately countered that with an exact opposite reaction. He says you must get attached or you aren't doing it right and will only be cheating the child. So again, the Slessingers put their own hearts on the line for the children.
The time frame for being with these children is unknown. It could be weeks, months, years or forever. But Mark takes every minute of that time making it better for the child. And he balances that with running a basketball program on the rise.
So as the news broke and Mark took the opportunity to spread the word of foster care and how there is need in every state, the phone kept ringing with media requests for his story. He took the time and explained basketball and parenting to every caller. Except the last call he received surprised even him. It was the Department of Children and Families Services on the line. A "safe haven" baby had just been dropped off at a local fire department, given up by a young woman, and needed a home right away.
Immediately Mark ended each interview and request, he had to go to the store.
All this because I know more about nothing...and heroes...
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