Tears of joy: 49 Nub-Ability athletes in Du Quoin for three-day limb-challenged camp won't take no for an answer

Disability is a matter of perception and for three days this weekend 49-limb challenged athletes showed everyone that it's "Game on!"

Thanks to Sam Kuhnert, the homegrown CEO of NubAbility Athletes and his mother Jana Kuhnert some great kids and teen athletes came together and felt that "I'm not alone."

They shined. They had fun. They learned. They brought tears of joy to all who came around a corner in the cafeteria or on VanMetre Field or in Anders Gymnasium and saw these champions and their parents smiling.

You could call it "Camp No Excuses" as their T-shirts said. And Du Quoin put its best foot forward for some youngsters that came to Du Quoin without one. They met others like them. They learned simple things like how to tie a shoe with one hand or how to catch a football with one arm.

Some of it was Divine Providence. "I had two coaches that were coming to the camp and on Wednesday I found out they were not coming (for one reason or another). A limb-challenged girl from Orlando, Fla. was about to head for Du Quoin and at her side was a young girl who was an outstanding young woman who played high school basketball with a disability. She turned out to be one of the best coaches at the camp. Deon Johnston, who has a local limo service, picked them up at the St. Louis Airport free of charge.

As the camp began, they needed a portable eight-foot tall basketball goal for smaller campers and Wendy Hopkins, Michelle Klein and Julie Behm took off in a pickup truck to go find one. It wouldn't lay down in the back of their truck so one of the girls drove and two of the girls sat on the base with the basketball equipment sticking eight-feet in the air as they pulled up at the high school.

Volunteer chef Danielle Woll, who worked at Walker's Bluff, and her crew worked from Friday night through noon Sunday preparing meals in the high school cafeteria.

People like Robyn Laur Russell and Marsha Morgenstern and their friends ran a silent auction that took in about $900 to pay for last minute expenses.

The list goes on and on and on.

One family drove 16 hours from Pennsylvania to be here. Another family came to Du Quoin from Los Angeles.

Jack Medina of Designs for Fitness who worked with Olympic great Cathy Rigby and several professional sports teams was one of the guest speakers. Miss Iowa Nicole Kelly, who was born missing a hand, spoke to campers and parents.

The weekend was nothing less than extraordinary.. All who volunteered had their finest hour.