COMMENTARY
Charity Vogel: The power of support: an update
A play and a potential law: A lot has happened to some of the people and places you read about first in this column. It’s time for an update.
1.) Jordy Maliken.
A month ago, you read about Jordan Maliken, the disabled 20-year-old runner who was told by local sports officials he couldn’t compete on Amherst High School’s track team this season.
The rules say high school athletes can only compete for four years; Jordy, who by law is allowed to go to school until he’s 21, is in his fifth and final year. His parents, Phyllis and Greg Maliken, took his case to local school and Section VI officials and were told no. Now they are taking their plea for an exemption to the state Education Department.
Jordy, who has lived with moderate to severe disabilities since birth, gains both health and self-esteem by running track with his teammates, his parents said.
Let Jordy run, this column urged. Make an exception.
And, it turns out, more than a few people agreed.
As of Sunday, 1,513 people had signed a petition on Jordy’s behalf on the Section6Runs.com Web site, according to webmaster Bill Wende.
Parents, students and coaches from all over Western New York e-mailed The News to say that Jordy’s participation in track meets has a value that can’t be measured.
“I am a track coach at Grand Island High School and we have had ‘Jordys’ on our team,” wrote one, Jim Patterson, “and they have added to the quality, as well as the growth and maturity, of the team.”
Public officials have also weighed in on Jordy’s behalf. Assemblyman Jim Hayes of Amherst announced that he will propose a law that will give local school superintendents more sway in such decisions in the future.
The Malikens now await an Albany verdict on their son’s case.
But justice delayed, in Jordy’s case, may be justice denied. The track season is short, and Jordy’s chances to run are dwindling.
2.) The Seneca Street shrine.
Last June, a column here described a simple shrine on Seneca Street in the city: a small brick structure with a glass window, behind which a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary—garbed in girlish 1950s-style clothes—can be seen.
On the front of the shrine at 847 Seneca, which was erected by an immigrant barber after what he claimed was a miraculous vision of Mary, is a mail slot, through which people have dropped countless notes over the years. Prayers for health, for jobs, for family.
That statue, still tucked into a hidden corner of Buffalo, is about to get a lot better known.
Playwright Tom Dudzick, author of “Over the Tavern,” has turned the Seneca Street shrine— which he visited last spring with this columnist—into a new play, “Our Lady of South Division Street.”
The play, which will premiere Friday in the Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, takes the shrine as a leaping-off point for a tale about Buffalo that blends faith, tradition and humor.
Dudzick said he was inspired by the little shrine, which he remembers from his childhood growing up on the East Side.
“When I was born, it was there. And it’s still there. It’s phenomenal,” he said. “I figured, a story has to be written about this.”
Dudzick said he is working on plans to bring “Our Lady of South Division Street” to Buffalo—the city he still hasn’t gotten over, dramatically speaking.
“There are still,” he said, “stories to be told.”
We couldn’t agree more.
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