ATLANTA - Lisa Calkins wrote the letter in early January. She hoped to convince the Challenged Athletes Foundation to award her a grant that would allow her to replace her 10-year-old son Sam's two prosthetic "walking legs" with running blades capable of helping him play the sports he loves at a much faster pace.
A registered nurse, she had adopted Sam from China when he was 4 1/2 years old. His right foot had been amputated when he was 2 due to a birth deformity. The Shriner's Hospital in Greenville, S.C., amputated his left foot when he was 7.
The walking legs weren't useless. Sam had adapted to them well enough to both pitch and play the outfield in the Ringgold Tigers youth league, where last summer he was named to the league's all-star team: the Dirt Bags.
But there were limits to the walking legs and there were financial limits to Calkins' paychecks when it came to purchasing a $30,000 pair of running blades.
So she wrote the CAF, a San Diego-based charity that's awarded more than $93 million in grants over its 25 years of existence.
Three weeks ago, CAF co-founder Bob Babbitt phoned Calkins at her Ringgold home.
"I cried," she said. "All I've ever wanted was to do the best I could for Sam. But I couldn't afford those running blades. When Bob told me I was receiving the grant, it was a dream come true."
But the dream was just beginning, for both Lisa and Sam. Despite being an avid Braves fan whose favorite player is first baseman Freddie Freeman, Sam had never been to a major league game. At least never before Tuesday.
Arriving at SunTrust Park around 4 in the afternoon, Lisa and Sam were swiftly ushered to the field, where Sam soon found himself receiving a perfect duplicate of Freeman's No. 5 game jersey from the first baseman himself with one notable exception: Sewn on the back of the jersey wasn't "FREEMAN" but "CALKINS."
"Hi, Sam, I'm Freddie," Freeman said, holding out his right hand for a shake. "Are you having fun? Do you want me to sign anything for you?"
His eyes wide, his voice betraying him, Sam held out the jersey the major league All-Star had just given him. Freeman was soon autographing a baseball and a baseball card as well.
"I think Sam's in shock," Lisa said.
It was right about then that Fox Sports baseball analyst and former Braves pitcher Paul Byrd arrived with a cameraman. Questions were asked and answered. An interview was supposed to run later that night during the Braves-Nationals telecast. Other Braves stopped by to sign autographs, including Dansby Swanson and Mike Foltynewicz, who told Sam that his grandmother had an artificial leg.
A moment or two after that, Andrew Hauser, the Braves' director of player performance, sat next to Sam in the dugout. When he was 18, Hauser lost his left leg in a car accident. An avid baseball and hockey player as well as a track athlete before the injury, he said he was never bitter about what was taken from him.
"I was just happy to be alive," Hauser said.
But he was about to make Sam even happier, for in a large gift bag positioned next to Hauser were the running blades that Babbitt's charity had approved.
Said Hauser as he handed them to Sam: "When you get comfortable in these, come back here and you and I will have a race in the outfield."
Chimed in Babbitt: "I hear two blades are better than one."
If the day had ended there, Sam would already have had a memory to last a lifetime. Or as Lisa said at 5:03 p.m. Tuesday, mindful that Sam and his schoolmates are on spring break this week: "When all his friends are telling him about everything they did at Disney World, he can say, 'Yeah, but I got to hang out with Freddie Freeman at SunTrust Park and go to a Braves game.'"
Or he can tell them about what took place at 7:23 Tuesday evening, when the giant video board in SunTrust's center field, the one that's 121 feet wide and 64 feet tall, began flashing the words, "Special Presentation."
In a few minutes, former Braves great David Justice, the 1995 World Series ring still shining bright on his right hand, would throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
But that wasn't what the special presentation was about, however special Justice always will be in Braves country for the home run he hit in Game Six of the 1995 Series, the only run Atlanta would need to clinch its lone world championship in the Big Peach.
No, this special presentation was to honor Calkins. It began with photos of Sam doing everything from pedaling a cart to attending a Chattanooga Lookouts game filling up the video screen as the youngster and his family stood on a circular red rug along the first-base line.
Soon the crowd of 30,000 or more were learning of Sam's struggles and triumphs, of how he'd like one day to run in triathlons and make the major leagues. Freeman stood beside him, telling Sam, "I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Over the loudspeaker, the narrator said, "Thank you, Sam, for your inspiring story."
Within a few minutes, the Braves and Nationals were inspiring the crowd with a bevy of runs as Atlanta surged to double digits and a victory. Seated in Section 112, rows 16 and 17 were Lisa, Sam and 17 friends and family members, including Lisa's parents, Lynn and Gary Calkins, and Sam's youth league baseball coach, Pierce Hughes.
"This is all so unbelievable," Lisa said. "I'm almost speechless."
No one knows what life holds for Sam from here. Babbitt tells the story of one Desmond Jackson, who received his running blades when he was 8 years old. At 16, he was running in the 200-meter finals at the Rio Paralympics.
Then again, Sam said if this major league baseball thing doesn't work out he'd like to be an engineer and "build a baseball park."
Whatever he ultimately does with his running blades doesn't matter nearly as much as the reason Babbitt wants every young amputee to have them.
With simple brilliance he said: "Being a kid is a lot better when you can run as fast as the other kids."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com