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I Feel Great!
(Image by Dorothy Howe 2002 with help from Josh)
Our Email Address is "ifeelgreat@joshuaslodge.com"
A
number of people who did not know Josh personally wanted to know, "What's up with I Feel Great?" I Feel Great is pretty much
Josh's response when people asked him how he was doing. Considering his difficulties, I consider that quite remarkable....
The Original J-Walk was organized to provide Josh with the
necessary funds for a unique bed to enable him to receive more quality rest, thus giving him more vitality for his daily living.
The J-walk was originally scheduled for June 1, 2002. Because of schedule conflicts, J-Walk organizers decided to move the
event ahead one week to May 25th. At the J-Walk Josh thanked everyone for their participation, and said,
"Let's do
this again next year, but for somebody else!"
Ironically, or perhaps providentially, Joshua died the morning of June
1st, 2002, at approximately 3AM!
The following year, 2003, J-walk 2 was organized and and successfully
completed for Patrick Burns a young man with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy who was in need of special equipment and whose parents
had several sons with MD who died from this dreadful disease. In 2004 a young man TJ Christian was the J-Walk subject, another
young man living an adult life with the ravaging effect of Cerebral Palsy. Our last J-Walk helped young Pete Bremberg, who
while attending Franciscan University in Ohio developed cancer and lost his lower leg. Pete and his family needed help acquiring
a replacement prosthesis, which the J-Walk donations contributed to significantly. Pete had been a Rugby Player and better
than average golfer, evidenced by his Net Men's Championship in the 2005 Josh Gonder Memorial, how about that!
The
Foundation has continued each year since his dath with the Josh Gonder Memorial a golf event which raises contributory funds
for three of Josh's primary intersts, the People of Hope school, Koinonia Academy, The Rutgers Catholic Center, both of which
he was active in, and The Sisters of Life, a religious order founded by His Eminence Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor, of New
York Archdiocese.
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Joshua's Prayer
Lord, his hands were so small yet he touched so large,
His words often garbled yet
their meaning so clear,
He could never walk, yet he ran with your charge,
To go forth with Thy message abandoning fear.
His
body so undersized held a heart immense,
When strangers stared his way he’d put them at ease,
His love for you Lord
so devotedly intense,
Each gawk he would greet with a quip or a tease.
He sprung in to life each day filled with
desire,
With just disadvantage in his diminutive frame,
To be just a normal guy was his consuming fire,
Providence
declared that we give him your name,He tackled each day in love with your gift,
Intrepid, gutsy and loaded with spunk,
We
obeyed you and raised him to always uplift,
He said of his life, “God don’t make no Junk”
His mouth always opens,
so’s to miss not, his smiles,
Large sparkling eyes ever focused your way.
He could not walk an inch, but could go on
for miles,
With promise and hope he motored into each day.
As his life drew to completion by your perfect will
Our
prayers so self-serving wanting him to stay,
You sent your Mother to fetch him as we lay so still,
So now he is with
You for an endless day.
Thus we give Him back our sadness so grave,
I hope we did well to prepare and groom,
Enjoy
him Lord this magnificent knave,
Let him free unto heaven and watch Him “Work Your Room!
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