John’s “Running Dream” By Caitlin Mahoney & Jillian Noack

              In September, Tyrrell students greatly enjoyed a visit from John Tartaglio, a double AK amputee.  He told everyone his story, and how he’s overcome his obstacles along the way.  When John was a junior in high school, he was perfectly      normal, athletic,  and healthy… that is until he developed a rare

infection,  which less than forty people had ever had before him.  Because of this, doctors were forced to amputate his two legs.

             Although the process was very difficult for the young athlete, with a lot of perseverance and hope, John began to set small goals for himself  -  ones that he knew he had a good chance  of achieving.  One of these goals included walking to receive his high school diploma on his graduation day.  After that came many races, a college degree, and several triathlons.  Lastly, his final goal was to complete the 26.2 mile long New York City Marathon.  Using his “running legs”, John finally completed the long course.

             During John Tartaglio’s presentation, Tyrrell kids were definitely inspired by his accomplishments.  John was even able to teach us how to set our own goals.  His main tip was to start small, and do something that is possible to achieve.  From there, keep building on.  Also, in the school-wide assembly, we discussed this year’s One School One Read book, The Running Dream.  We analyzed the similarities and differences between John’s experiences and the book’s main character, Jessica’s experiences.  For sure, all of the Tyrrell students enjoyed the assembly run by our guest speaker, John Tartaglio.