Issue No. 532 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the true story of a dad’s two greatest fears—and how Angels for Higher, an extraordinary faith-based nonprofit, popped out of this family’s poignant journey. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.
“He’s a boy!” Those words marked the happiest moment of Robert Hendershot’s life. But five minutes later…
Picture this scene. Trevor Hendershot is interviewing for his first job—and it’s in Major League Baseball! The Los Angeles Angels are hiring an “Angel Team Store Greeter” at Anaheim Stadium. It was a long shot for Trevor, but he was game. And the anticipated 15-minute interview was just rounding second base after almost an hour.
Would Trevor make the cut? Eddie, the store manager, looked over Trevor’s very thin resume (retail training at Trader Joe’s and Walgreens in a “transition” program). So Eddie told Trevor:
“Frankly, I can teach almost anyone how to stock, face products, and do go-backs. That would be simple enough.” Eddie continued, “However, I know from my years in the retail business that there a few things I cannot teach—things like natural friendliness, a cheerful disposition and an engaging personality . . . all wrapped around a beautiful smile. And you, Trevor, have all of that and more! Our first home game is against the Kansas City Royals on Friday, April 6. Can you be there?”
You just gotta read this inspiring, true story! Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor, captures this homerun moment in 2012—and you won’t believe what’s happened in the last 10 years (actually the last 32+ years).
Robert Hendershot, Trevor’s dad, identifies with Job’s story in the Old Testament. Chapter 1 in Angel for Higher is titled, “What I Feared Has Come Upon Me” (see Job 3:25a). Chapter 2 continues Hendershot’s losing streak (or is it?), “What I Dreaded Has Happened to Me” (see Job 3:25b).
Oh, my. Along with the eye-popping, amazing, and inspiring true stories (and laugh-out-loud humor), you’ll wonder—have you ever met a more transparent author? Gutsy. Honest.
Robert Hendershot struggled with two huge fears. He admits: “I was forced to at last acknowledge that I’d definitely become the alcoholic I’d always feared becoming; that there wasn’t any person, place, or thing that could save me; and that suicide offered itself as the only possible solution to the nightmare of my miserable existence.”
His second fear: “I had all these hopes and dreams that our child would be everything I never was in life: a great leader, a tremendous athlete, a skilled musician, an outstanding scholar. At the very least, I hoped that our child would be happy and content with who he or she was in life and not have to resort to alcohol or drugs in order to feel comfortable in his or her own skin.”
The happiest moment of his life? It was on May 4, 1990, when the doctor announced “He’s a boy!” Trevor’s parents, Robert and Melissa, were joyful.
But five minutes later—“by far one of the saddest moments of my life” writes Robert—the doctor asked, “Do you know what Down syndrome is?”
And thus you’re drawn into this powerful, powerful story. (I read half the book to my wife, Joanne, and she’s recommended the book to others.) You can’t put it down.
Robert Hendershot writes that Angel for Higher “…seeks to explain how synergizing the lessons I learned from my struggles with alcoholism together with the challenges of raising my son with Down syndrome resulted in tremendous blessings, not only in Trevor’s life and mine…” but also in the lives of his wife, Melissa, and Trevor’s younger two brothers and their wives.
Trevor is now 32. And since that successful interview in 2012 to serve as the Angel Team Store Greeter, he has also welcomed thousands of sports fans to Anaheim Stadium and other venues including the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and the University of Southern California’s Trojans. Trevor is “an ‘Angel for Higher’ if you will.”
But…wait. Read the rest of the story. Robert Hendershot was convicted when he listened to a men’s retreat speaker who said, “Consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.”
This reminded me of Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
So in 2018, the Hendershots launched a faith-based nonprofit, Angels for Higher, “to inspire, encourage and help many more sports teams and university campuses to hire many more individuals with Down syndrome.”
The hope: “AfH was formed with the hope that the lives of many more pre-born babies with Down syndrome would be saved by changing the public perception of young adults with Down syndrome through their employment as Greeters in public venues.”
To learn more, view this short video highlighting the work of Angels for Higher.
Click here to view this 2½-minute video featuring Trevor and the inspiring work of Angels for Higher.
Today, Angels for Higher is gracing an amazing number of sports venues across the country—and still growing. Those teams have hired extraordinary greeters (Angels for Higher/Hire—get it?). Visit their “Success Stories” pages to view short clips from the Golden State Warriors, Chicago Cubs (my favorite!), Ohio State University, Notre Dame, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, and more. And read this Associated Press article.
I won’t spoil the fun for you—because, wonderfully, Robert Hendershot can take a serious story and make it both poignant and hilarious (often on the same page).
Read the book to learn:
• Why Trevor...loved his high school classmates so much, that even though he was bullied at first, the students elected him Homecoming King. (Read his hilarious question to his dad!).
• Why Trevor...initially refused to provide a sample for his drug test. (Hilarious!)
• About...Trevor’s impromptu song at a weekend men’s retreat (“for five excruciatingly painful minutes,” writes Robert) and why Trevor and his dad reversed their early morning check-out plans.
With a confessional—yet redemptive—tone, Hendershot winds in and out and back into his AA journey, and puts flesh on the bones of one of the 12-step mandates—making amends. In Chapter 3, “Even More Undignified Than This,” Robert faced a dilemma on how to communicate his new heart and mission to Trevor. “I knew I had to come up with a way of making a more earnest apology to him through my actions (known in twelve-step programs as a living amends) because actions do speak louder than words.”
So—get this! Robert observed that Trevor always cracked up watching a video of the Three Stooges. In one favorite scene, one Stooge hurts his foot and is painfully hopping around, another (for comedic effect) is doing a slow, Cossack-style dance, while the third Stooge claps and chants, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” You will not believe what Trevor’s dad humbled himself to do every morning with Trevor at his bus stop.
Funny? Yes! Life lessons for the rest of us? Oh, my!
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor.
NOTE: To go deeper on how you, your church, and your colleagues might better understand recovery programs, I recommend the 2021 book, Why Can't Church Be More Like an AA Meeting? And Other Questions Christians Ask About Recovery, by Stephen R. Haynes. The author quotes a blogger, “Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” (Read my review.)
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Robert Hendershot was challenged to “consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.” So…what breaks your heart?
2) If you work or volunteer in an organization or ministry where the obstacles and challenges often outweigh the “success stories,” perhaps you need an inspiring dose of God’s miracle stories—like Robert and Trevor. Who, on our team, should read this book and report on it?
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #3 of 100:
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #3 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #3:
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You
by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten
I read and reviewed this book in 2009 and I suppose it influenced me to create my own list of 100 must-read books (but not limited to just business books).
• Read John’s review.
• Order The 100 Best Business Books of All Time from Amazon.
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.
The co-authors are like fine surgeons in the art of reviewing business books. As of 2009, I had read 21 of the 100 books. I was familiar with another 25—and had always wanted to read about half of those. So the value of this book, for me, is having at my fingertips a two-page morsel on each of the 54 books I’ve never read. If your favorite book is missing, you can recommend it on their website like I did.
Each book summary includes a memorable quote in big, bold type. Example from The Balanced Scorecard:
you can’t manage it.”
Just reading the summary of The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker (one of my personal Top-20 books), gave me new insights and a new one-liner:
solve problems once.”
WHY CAN’T CHURCH BE MORE LIKE AN AA MEETING? "First Church of Sinners!" Author Stephen R. Haynes quotes blogger R. Brad White who calls AA a place of “healing, support, encouragement, and accountability.” He wonders why “this description does not apply to more churches. Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.
PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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