Dabo’s All In Team® Foundation has donated $20,000 to the Rise Program of Tuscaloosa.

The purpose of the Rise Program is to provide exemplary services based on recommended practices to young children with diverse abilities and their families.

Coach Gene Stallings, whose late son John Mark had Down syndrome, has been instrumental in the start of the program in Tuscaloosa and growth to other college campuses.

The Gene Stallings annual golf tournament in Tuscaloosa raises funds for the Rise School to pay for the school's physical, speech, occupational and music therapy, as well as equipment and special needs staff.

This year the tournament was schedule for Thursday April 29th in Tuscaloosa, Alabama but was cancelled due to the devastating tornado the day before and will not be rescheduled this year. The tournament normally raises $200,000 for the school, thus the importance of the foundation’s donation this year.

Fortunately the Rise School, students, teachers, and staff and their immediate families have been accounted for. Some of their homes did receive damage, but were not completely destroyed.

Regarding the donation, “What it does, as a rule of thumb, if you have a child with special needs and he goes to a school like the Rise program, it costs $1,100, 1,200 a month,” Stallings said. “As a result of this tournament and a few other things, if you have a child that has Downs and wants to go to the Rise school in Tuscaloosa, it doesn't cost the parents a dime, and that's a big deal. It's enough of a burden to have a child with special needs, then to have to pay $1,100-1,200 a month so that that child can go to school, it just doesn't make sense.

Coach Stallings with the late John Mark