A husband and wife team have spent years opening up new opportunities to people with disabilities.Â
"Once those two get something in their head that they want to start, you better either jump on or get out of their way because they're gonna see it through, all the way through," said Tom Chapman.
Showing people with special needs that they have the ability to shine. That's the mission Cam and Rachael Staley set out to achieve every single day.
Thanks to their dedicated efforts, the pair was not only able to get a handicap accessible field built for the Allen County Abilities Baseball League, which Rachael founded, but they also organized "Night to Shine", the Tim Tebow sponsored special needs prom in Lima.
Through these projects they continue to invest in a part of our community that sometimes gets left behind.
"You know I think there's always something that we can do and something that each and every single one of us have to give. for us, this is something small that we can do and play a part in their life and continue to invest and give them different opportunities such as night to shine and then this baseball field. we're just continuing to look for different ways to get them involved in our community," said Rachael Staley, 2018 Jefferson Award winner.
A small thing for them, but their work is a big deal to those in their lives.
"I think people that give of their time so generously like Cam and Rachael make the community special in so many ways because they make other people realize their full potential," said Chad Hughes.
"They definitely make sure that everyone is involved. They don't want to hold on to anything, they want to be in the background and make sure we all work together," said Jen Robey.
While they aren't doing all of this good for recognition, they are setting an example for the big and little eyes watching them.
"Even the kids know how important it is, like, they're out there on Sunday nights with us and they're seeing first handed what they need to do when they get older," said Dottie Chapman.
Cam says that he and Rachael see their work as their way to serve their community and their faith. "I think both Rae and I, we believe that God has called us to serve all people and to serve people that especially sometimes don't get the same opportunities in life as maybe some of the rest of us and we don't ever want to take those things for granted and that's the end goal, you know, in all these things that we're working on. we just want to open up access and opportunity to as many  kids and as many families out there that could use this opportunity to meet a need."Â
