Last week, the basketball team at St. Mary’s Home for Boys had their final game of the season.  They lost.  It was a tough season for them.  They played the same team each week throughout the season.  Another group of young men who have faced challenges in their lives.  Each week they played their hearts out.  And often, but not always, they came up short.

But after this final game … they came up big.

Earlier in the week the St. Mary’s boys decided they should give something to the other team after the game.  A gesture of sportsmanship.  A thank you.  And the boy I mentor made the decision to give up one of his prized possessions.  A limited edition basketball that the Portland Trail Blazers had given to him on Christmas day.  They gave it to him as he stood, alongside other boys from St. Mary’s, on the court before the Blazers tipped off against his favorite team … the Denver Nuggets.  He loved that basketball.  Partly because very few people had one … but mostly because it was passed to him from the hands of someone he considers to be a role model.

And so he had all his teammates sign it.  And when the game ended, they passed it on to the other team.

He doesn’t know the saying, “the scent of a rose lingers on the hand that gives it” … and he may not realize that the act of kindness, not the basketball, was the true gift.  But he does observe the acts of others … people he admires … role models.  And he follows their examples.  His kind gesture makes a case for the importance of role models.  A case for those in the public eye to set a good example.  Our youth are watching.