by Robert Fallo
“He is small but mighty,” Cheryl Donovan said of her 5-year-old son Liam as he paraded around Wexler Field in his newly gifted knee-lengthed Raiders lacrosse jersey, “It’s my thing that I always say.”
Liam, born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, was not expected to make his first birthday according to doctors due to delayed growth and development, undeveloped muscles, heart abnormalities and seizures. In addition to the defects, Liam also has had trouble communicating. Although his mother knows he has trouble verbally, it doesn’t mean he is different from anyone else.
“A lot of people look to me after asking a question instead of asking him. If I tell him ‘get mommy her shoes’ he’ll understand and bring them to me. He understands,” Donovan said.
On April 12, Liam turned five, and his mother decided she wanted something very special for her son. Knowing of his love affair with cards and pictures, Cheryl posted to Facebook in hopes of gaining the attention of social media to help Liam out with gifts. The page eventually surfaced to NJ.com, where a story was written about Liam and his back-story.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood head coach Nick Miceli, a phys ed teacher at Park Middle School who involves special-education students into his class, discovered the article and instantly found a place in his heart for Liam.
“I really feel like if you look at a kid or families that have to go through what Liam does every single day, you can’t sweat the small stuff,” Miceli said. “Liam is a kid who may not ever be able to play a team sport. Or a family that won’t be able to watch their kid play a team sport. It shows that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. I’m a big believer in that. If you’re going to do anything do it 100%, don’t take any time off.”
A few days after reading the story, Miceli had the lacrosse team fill out a card for Liam. Along with the card would be a picture of the team with “Happy Birthday Liam” titled on the front. But instead of sending out the card to Liam’s house, Miceli was able to come in contact with the Donovan family and extended an invitation to attend Tuesday’s game against Hillsborough.