ProRodeo Sports News - February 9, 2018

GIVING BACK

Hodges shares rodeo experience with man with Down syndrome BY SCOTT KANIEWSKI M ichael Kelley hasn’t had the easiest life. The 22-year-old with Down syndrome has undergone heart surgery, was given a life expectancy of five years, needs a monthly transfusion and at one point was given a 10 percent chance to survive an infection. He was able to forget about those problems for a while Jan. 27 at the PRCA Championship Rodeo in Park City, Kan., thanks to a couple of rodeo connections. Until recently, Kelley’s two favorite pastimes to watch on his iPad were country music videos and hockey videos. Somehow, he happened upon bull riding, and more specifically, bullfighters and rodeo clowns. He was entranced almost immediately. His mother just didn’t understand what he was trying to communicate to her. “He’s like, ‘I know how to do it,’” said Jolinda ‘My Clown Friend’

Barrelman Robbie Hodges, right, shows Michael Kelley around the arena at the PRCA Championship Rodeo in Park City, Kan., Jan. 27. Photo courtesy Mikayla Kelley

Kelley, Michael’s adoptive mother. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean you know how to do it?’ He’s jumping from side to side and then he says, ‘And then I jump in the barrel.’ Then I’m like, ‘OK, I understand what you’re saying now, you think you’re going to be a rodeo clown.’” As Michael showed Jolinda videos upon videos of rodeo clowns, one name kept popping up – Justin Rumford. What were the odds? MEETING OF NECESSITY Several years prior, Jolinda was Ashley Rumford’s nurse navigator of women’s health at Wesley Medical Center inWichita, Kan., when Ashley was on bed rest for three-and-a-half weeks before giving birth to triplets and then for another week-and-a-half after she suffered an incarcerated hernia due to complications from the delivery. Meanwhile, the triplets spent their first two months in the hospital.

“She (Jolinda) was the one that told my mom let’s get her to the hospital,” Ashley said. “She made sure I could stay in the same hospital area where my kids were. … She was so wonderful to me. I couldn’t go down to the NICU to see my kids, so she sent pictures up for me. She went above and beyond.” Over those few months, Ashley and Jolinda bonded. Ashley is the wife of barrelman Justin Rumford. Their triplets are now 4 years old. Over those four-plus years, Ashley and Jolinda have stayed in touch, often texting on the triplets’ birthday. The Rumfords and Michael had never met. With Michael’s sudden love of rodeo clowns and the rodeo coming to town, Jolinda’s daughter Mikayla happened to win tickets in a radio contest. So Jolinda reached out to Ashley, asking if she knew the rodeo clown at Park City.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/9/18

ProRodeo.com

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