I have to admit I was excited about visiting Paul Norton. After hearing favorable reviews from other Bettendorf schools regarding my visit, I'd been told that the group I'd be presenting to was also very excited about my visit. Lindsay Connor had made the arrangements for my speech and she was a little nervous having so many students gathered in one collective group. I assured her that the students would have fun and this seemed to ease her concerns.

As promised the students were very enthusiastic and highly charged from the baseball skit and Creeper's Glass Eye reading. One fifth-grader asked me who was my favorite baseball player?

When I told him Pete Rose.

He responded, "How can you admire a player who bet on baseball?"

Students aren't afraid to ask the tough question. And yet, most students can only perceive of our world as either black or white. So I responded in this way: "When I was young, we'd nicknamed Pete Rose as 'Charlie Hustle' because Pete would always strive to turn a single into a double. He'd always go for the extra base and gave one hundred percent. As a young boy living in a lower class neighborhood in the 'burbs' near Cincinnati we also knew that Pete was once considered an average player and had it not been for his heart and determination he may have never become an All-Star player.

"While I can't agree with Mr. Rose betting on baseball, I can look back and remember Pete for his exceptional grit and determination to succeeed in a game I've always loved to both watch and play. Pete gave us hope despite the tremendous odds against us, and so this is why I admire him for what he has done for the game of baseball and me and the gang - who like him - will always strive to stretch a single into a double."

After my speech to the K-2 students, I shook hands and gave students high-fives wishing them well. One young boy squirmed in anger in the arms of his teacher. When I asked the student what was wrong he said, "You never asked me what about my dream?"

Unfortunately, I have so many students raise their hands when I ask them to come to the front to confess to their fellow students their dreams that I can't fit them all in. So some students are left disappointed when I don't call on them.

So I took the disappointed boy to the side and asked him to sit next to me on a bench. His teacher placed him beside me. He sat their stiff and rigid and refused to make eye contact with me until I said, "I knew your dream is very special and so I've made sure you have my personal attention now to tell me your dream."

The anger flushed from the yongster's body and his smile returned. He proceeded to tell me his dream and all was soon forgiven. His teacher thanked me and he gladly walked back to his classroom with her.

In a recent article in the Des Moines Register I was called the "Dream Doctor" and in many respects perhaps this is a role I'm willing to take on to help children realize that dreams can and do come true. It is why I am right now writing a picture book to appeal to K-2 students, so that way even if I can't call on them one by one from the audience that my words of hope will still reach each of them in the form of an inspirational book I call "My Birthday Wish".

Thank you, Lindsay and Paul Norton. I hope your anticipation of my visit was as rewarding to you in the end as it was to me.