Back in 2005 the Heartwell Foundation children and staff had the opportunity to meet Prince Charles the Prince of Wales. Don’t ask how this opportunity presented itself, it would be too complicated to explain. More than likely it was one of those situations where someone knew someone, who knew someone else, who thought it would work well.
And it did.
Picture the following group all gathered on the main courts of the State Netball Centre. Most importantly, seventy children from the Heartwell Foundation all with varying levels of physical and cognitive function, also a respective parent (or two and even grand parent if they had wangled it with us), a team of Heartwell staff and The Prince of Wales himself along with his large entourage. That included all the media personnel following his tour and the massive security team that also was accompanying him. It was a mixed bag of “pompous poms” and excited Australian children, all glad for the opportunity to miss an afternoon of school.
Our challenge was to set up an activity circuit where all the children could participate and have some fun. We had to cater for the kids in wheelchairs, those on frames, those with poor balance and those who could not see. All this had to appear to be running smoothly so that when His Royal Highness walked through it would look impressive and not like the mad scramble it really was! HRH was supposed to be impressed by this Australian program which provides physical activity for children with disability.
Somehow we pulled it off and had lots of fun. It was a great experience for us to meet someone so famous and the parents were excited too. I don’t think the children were all that impressed by HRH (with all due respect to Prince Charles) for them, it was all about the fun.
All except for one of our teenage boys, Nathan. Fifteen years old, six feet tall with a developmental delay that allowed him to speak his mind and act on his impulses. The Heartwell team had been given very strict protocol on approaching and speaking to HRH. In fact it was only Scott, my fellow Director, who was given permission by the entourage to come within 3 metres of The Prince of Wales. All this had been documented and discussed well before the day of the event. All the staff and parents understood that this strict protocol must be adhered to. Unfortunately we forgot to tell Nathan. Unexpectedly he left his group, marched up to HRH and before the security could intervene thrust out his hand and said “ Hello Prince Charles, my name is Nathan-Welcome to Australia!”
Whereby Prince Charles took his hand and said “Thank you Nathan thank you”
It was a happy and memorable moment.
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