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Amory powerlifting champ Joe Morrow has plenty of advice, not only on fitness, but overall health as well. On Wednesday, he spoke at the newly opened PTW Fitness in Bruce. PTW is owned by trainer and competitive powerlifter, Yarnell Marks.
Here’s what he told the youth and adults in attendance.
From Joe,
The main spots I hit on were education, self-esteem, physical fitness and parents as role models. Going through school, I was always the shortest in the bunch, so I know what it was like a little to have issues with self-esteem; short jokes were cracked on me constantly! But, as I grew older, and I realized that God makes us all different for different reasons, I became comfortable with my stature.
I also stressed that while it is good to want athletic ambitions majority of the times, having a good educational background is very beneficial as well. I loved the discussion on fitness, because I was able to talk with both age groups that attended.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, it doesn’t take much! Why wait until the doctor tells that you need to exercise before you actually even make an attempt?! Parents should be good role models in the sense that we should want our kids to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
I give alot of credit to Coach Marks for what he’s done in just a few weeks with his members and how he’s gotten such a positive reaction from those kids over there. Coach Marks, like myself, feels rewarded knowing that he helps to make a positive difference in peoples lives. You can’t put a price tag on that.
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As she had done several times over the past 10 months, Kylie was at her desk writing a letter to send her father in Iraq.
Deep in thought, Kylie didn’t notice that her dad, Sgt. Wayne Seymore, was standing just feet away from her.
“Kylie, look,” whispered her teacher, Debbie Stevens. “You have a visitor.”
As she looked up and fixed her eyes on the tall man dressed in Army fatigues, she slowly stood up, not sure what to do. But when her father knelt down and opened his arms, Kylie sprinted across the room and jumped into them.
“Daddy, you’re home, you’re home,” she said as she buried her head in his chest.
“Baby, I’m home,” he replied as he tightened his grip around her.
A member of the 1-98th Cavalry of the Mississippi National Guard, Seymore returned from his second stint in Iraq on Saturday and had been at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg. His wife, Amber, and 3-year-old daughter Mia picked him up Wednesday morning while Kylie was in school.
Then they showed up at the school about 2 p.m. to surprise Kylie.
“It’s a feeling I can’t begin to describe,” he said. “We’ve all been waiting for this for so long and for the day to be here it’s just amazing. Leaving my family was the hardest thing. I missed them so much. The girls are bigger. I missed Christmas and birthdays. But we’re going to try to make up for that time.”
In addition to a late Christmas in a couple of weeks, the family will head to Disney World in April.
Amber Seymore said the deployment was easier for her the second time around, but it was difficult for Kylie.
“All she did was talk about her daddy,” said Amber. “She talked about him at school and at home. She made sure everyone knew her daddy. It feels good just to have my family here.”
Stevens said Kylie talked so much about her dad that she and the whole class felt as if they knew him. When he left, the class hung yellow ribbons around the classroom in his honor. They were still there for him to see on Wednesday.
While the students let Kylie have her time with her dad, they couldn’t wait to get their turn with the soldier. Some just wanted to touch his uniform, and others fired off questions.
“Our whole class has been waiting for him to come home, so this is a good day for all of us,” said Stevens. “I’m so excited that all of this is happening.”
Contact Danza Johnson at (662) 678-1583 or danza.johnson@djournal.com.
