For all of the BS splashed across the news on a seemingly hourly basis, here’s proof that, yes, kindness, compassion and the human spirit are still alive and well
During a 2015 game against Georgia, Southern University wide receiver Devon Gales sustained a severe spinal injury while returning a kick, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. As we have chronicled in the ensuing months, former UGA football players, current UGA boosters, alumni and other members of the community have banded together in fundraisers as well as donations from the construction contractors to build a house for Gales, who is now a high school football coach in Jefferson, Ga.
Thursday, nearly one full year after construction began, Gales and his family moved into the wheelchair-accessible, 5,000-square-foot home. According to USA Today, the house includes individual rooms for his brother and sister as well a special section for his parents.
Arguably the best part, though, was Gales’ and his mother’s reaction. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:I’m at my new house, where I’ll be living the rest of my life.
“I’m home.”
“I can feel the love in every nail driven, every window sealed, every board put up,” said his mother, Tish Gales.
“We raised over $250,000 and in addition to that we’ve had multiple businesses donate their labor, their product,” former Georgia state senator Jim Butterworth said according to the Journal-Constitution. “Most everything in this (fully furnished) house has some donation connected to it.”