More sportsmanship from Elgin High

Thank you for sharing Winfred Cooper's inspiring story. As a parent of two of Winfred's Elgin High classmates, I have seen firsthand what an extraordinary young man he is.

I have also witnessed the heartwarming support and friendship that EHS students give not only to Winfred, but to others as well. Unfortunately, they don't get news coverage as often as the "bad" kids.

My son runs cross country for Elgin. At one meet last season, the last of our runners completed the course, and the team had started to pack up. The host team had taken down the finish line. All of a sudden, we heard an Elgin runner begin to clap wildly and shout "Keep going! Come on, you can do it!" Immediately his teammates joined in.

In the distance, a lone runner from another school slowly but steadily was making his way to the end of the race. The Elgin team cheered him on until he finished.

At the next meet, a man approached the Elgin head coach and said, "I want to thank you and your boys. That was my son they were cheering on at the last meet. His own teammates didn't do that. As a matter of fact, they didn't even notice he hadn't finished, and the team bus left without him."

The father had tears in his eyes. "You've got some great kids here."

When I think of Elgin students, I think of these kids, not the few "troublemakers."

Stacey Glowinski

Carol Stream