Guest Post from Shawn's Mammaw:
We discovered early that Shawn learned well when we incorporated music into his life. As a baby, he learned how to spell his name by singing it. We would make up little ditties that would instruct and soothe him.
As Shawn got older, we noticed that he could sing nearly any song he heard the first time from memory (he learned to read music before he learned to read words). When he entered middle school, Shawn was allowed to play in percussion section of the middle school band with one-on-one assistance. It quickly became obvious that Shawn needed little or no help to assimilate into the band. He quickly advanced through having small pieces of music to play to beating the biggest, loudest bass drum through the entire performance.
When Shawn was 15, he and his family moved to Alabama. Alabama-home of University of Alabama Million Dollar Band. Band participation is highly competitive in Alabama. High school students fight for top honors and recognition and the ultimate prize is to get to be in the Million Dollar Band. We knew that wasn’t a possibility for Shawn, but it was very exciting when the high school allowed Shawn to play in all the band’s performances including graded competitions. When it was offered to have Shawn sit out during an important performance, we were firmly informed that Shawn was doing his job and doing it well and that he was part of the band. Period. His band directors always commented his Shawn’s drum beat was always right on - no matter how intricate it was. He loved being a band member. Upon graduation from high school, leaving the band became one of his biggest disappointments.
Shawn and the rest of our family has always had a wonderful relationship with our church worship team. Central Christian Church in Kingman is a branch of Central Christian Church from Henderson Nevada. We have a wonderful worship team that can compete with any worship team in the world! Its leader, Dean Colvig, is assisted by his wife and (until recently) his oldest son with occasional appearances by their three younger children. The lead guitarist, Greg Book, is joined on stage by his two sons Jacob and Andrew. Shawn has a love affair with these people. And it is returned. When Shawn comes to visit, he places himself directly in front of the stage in the front row where he struggles to decide should he play air guitar in a battle of the bands with Greg or air drums against Jacob. Fortunately, our congregation loves Shawn so much that they encourage him instead of being distracted.
This year our worship team performed four times during Christmas week. We took Shawn to the Sunday morning Christmas Eve service. Dean asked me if Shawn could come on stage to play drums. I was surprised when he said no practice was necessary. I was the only one who knew the secret… I suggested to my husband Tom that he video the performance. After a beautiful opening sequence, three youth drummers carried their drums onto the stage and little children from the Sunday school class came marching up on the stage. Dean jumped down from the stage, grabbed Shawn, and brought him up and handed him a set of mallets. With zero practice, Shawn immediately figured out the cadence for the drums and the look at the joy on his face was priceless! He even got to perform again at the next service! We thank our worship team and church for loving Shawn and letting him just be Shawn!
Video of the performance here
AND
AND
