On Halloween the four ‘Howard Kids’ were left at home while their parents ran out to finish a quick errand. The four children who had recently moved from their home in Georgia to Sarasota, Florida. The kids (ages 13, 10, 8, and 6) waited for their parents to return, but their parents were both involved in a fatal car accident and instead of seeing mom and dad return home the kids were instead greeted by a State Trooper (one hell of a good guy). From there the children’s lives were thrown into a complete state of flux. But for the eldest child, 13-year-old Justin, one thing remained constant: he loves football and his favorite team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Last night on the Facebook page ‘Operation Howard Kids’ a video was uploaded that shows 13-year-old Justin being surprised with the news that he and his siblings will get the complete VIP treatment from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, going behind the scenes and getting to meet all the players. They will also get to watch this Sunday’s NFS South matchup between the Bucs and Falcons from a luxury VIP box suite:
In a separate post to the Operation Howard Kids Facebook page an announcement was made that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity happened after the Bucs and Falcons worked together to create a magical experience for the young Bucs fans:
In addition to last night’s surprise for Justin and his siblings, I want to thank the Atlanta Falcons along with the Tampa Bay Bucs. The owner of the Falcons reached out to Nathan a few weeks ago with a similar offer for the kids.
It truly warms my heart to see both of these NFL franchises (and rivals at that!) reaching out in such an amazing way. Not only do these acts make one of Justin’s dreams a reality, these teams are giving the kids amazing memories they will never forget in the midst of a very difficult time.
With that said, THANK YOU Buccaneers and Falcons football!
Smiles. It’s all about the smiles. If you happened to deal with any sort of extreme tragedy at a young age then you know how nice it is to not think about life for a while and just be happy. It’s nice to know those kids will get a few hours at the Bucs game full of ‘peace of mind’.