Across America: One young man's story
Posted: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 5:55 PM by Daily Nightly Editor
by Russell Biven, WBIR-TV, Knoxville, Tenn
East Tennessee is a beautiful region of the country, and the soil for turning good stories is as rich as the farm land that decorates its landscapes. I've had the pleasure of telling many of these tales, but none have painted a better picture of true American spirit like that of this young man from Karns, Tennessee.
I first heard about Kris Phillips from a co-worker at WBIR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Knoxville. She talked about a little boy, who despite incredible odds and disabilities, finishes every single cross country race for his middle school. Of course, I liked the story, but was busy on other features for a few days. Then, I received an email about this same little boy and how he's inspiring an entire community. That sealed the deal.
Photojournalist Jerry Owens and I hit the road one evening after Live at Five, the show I co-host, and headed to West Knoxville for a cross country meet. Keep in mind, around here football and Nascar reign supreme, so when I saw deputies directing traffic for this particular sporting event, I knew something special was taking place.
One officer told me, "every event draws bigger and bigger crowds."
Hopefully, after seeing the story, you can see why. I will never forget the sight of Kris, embraced by runners both from Karns Middle School and others, make that long trek up the final hill to the finish. I will never forget the dozens and dozens of emails from people around the country who saw the story on other NBC affiliates or MSNBC.
I will never forget the emails from churches saying they were going to show this young man's story in their Sunday school classes.
Most of all, I will never forget what took place when Kris crossed that finish line.
He didn't want a bottled water or high five's from teammates, he simply wanted his mother's hug.
It just doesn't get much better than that.
By the way, in many of the events, his father runs much of the way with Kris, and his brother is his biggest fan.
Today, you can find Kris still running the hills of East Tennessee, but this time it's with the Karns High School team.
