By CHLOE ALEXANDER -Variety Editor
Former classmates of Clarke Central High School graduate and grandson of Billy Henderson, Zach Henderson, honor his name with a scholarship aimed at sending children with special needs to summer camp.
Clarke Central High School class of 2006 graduate Zach Henderson was a celebrity of sorts during his time on the CCHS campus. His involvement with the baseball and football teams, his captain status on both during his senior year and the legacy from his grandfather Billy Henderson gave him notoriety among his fellow classmates.
Clarke Central High School class of 2006 graduate Zach Henderson, in addition to being captain of the football and baseball teams, had an interest in working with children with special needs.
However, underneath his athletic origins, Zach had a passion for working with children with special needs, particularly as a counselor for Extra Special People, a program based in Oconee county for children with developmental disabilities.
“I’ve seen Zach mad, I’ve seen him sad, I’ve seen him everything but when he was at ESP, I think that was where he was at peace and he was just happy. Nothing could bring him down when he was with those children. That was a special thing to him,” CCHS class of 2006 graduate Lauren Thompson said.
Thompson and Zach dated for five and a half years throughout high school and briefly afterwards. Zach was also close friends with CCHS class of 2006 graduate Emily Mcarthur during that time.
“Lauren and Zach and I became friends in sixth grade and and all throughout high school, we hung out all the time. We went to his baseball games and his football games and we did everything together. We were best friends,” McArthur said.
Zach also provided support for McArthur during difficult times.
“I needed someone to stay with me and I called him up and he was there. He loved to help people out, like he was the biggest giver,” McArthur said. “Yeah, he’s a guy and he can have an attitude, but if you need him there, he wouldn’t say no. He was very genuine.”
Another one of Zach’s closest relationships was with his cousin Craig, who was born with multiple disabilities.
“When his aunt would have to go out and run errands and whatnot, he would sit with Craig and hang out with him. He was just very inspired by Craig,” Thompson said. “I think (he) was a big motivation for Zach to work with children with disabilities because, say a child has autism, that child isn’t autistic, he has autism. That’s what Zach believed about disabilities, that a child’s disability didn’t define who they were, it was just something they were born with and had to live with.”
Zach’s inspiration to work with children with disabilities led him to become involved with the ESP program in the summer of 2010, where Craig was a camper.
“He did the ESP counseling thing and you could just see during the summers the joy in him and the happiness without having the stresses of being a Henderson on the football field and a Henderson on the baseball field. He didn’t have the pressures of feeling this life. When he was out there, he was free,” McArthur said.
Zach attended Georgia College and State University to play baseball after graduating and after that, transferred to Gainesville State College. When his parents relocated to Tennessee to take care of his grandparents, Zach transferred to the University of Chattanooga and majored in social work.
While living in Tennessee, on Dec. 14, 2012, Zach passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.
Almost a year after his death, Thompson and McArthur, along with class of 2006 graduate Daniel Autry, decided to begin a positive initiative in his name.
“I think people for a long time have had a very misconstrued idea of who he is because they didn’t know him like we did. He was very private and so we’re trying to show that he was more than a football player, more than a baseball player. He wanted to be an individual and that is where ESP came in and that took his mind away,” McArthur said. “He really just didn’t feel a connection even though he had all these friends and it was really hard when he passed because we want him to know that he is the most special person in the world.”
Zach, along with fellow football player CCHS class of 2006 graduate Dadren Tucker, was featured in an article in volume 3, issue 6 of the ODYSSEY Newsmagazine during the fall of his senior year.
Since Zach had a passion for working with children with disabilities, his friends chose to fund the children of ESP in need, particularly those who were not able to pay for ESP’s summer camps.
“Their parents have to pay out of pocket for them to go to camp. So with the economy the way it is, some children can’t come up with that money, especially children with a lot of disabilities. They have to pay for medication and that kind of stuff, so money gets tight,” Thompson said.
The group’s first fundraising effort, a tailgate, as well as a live auction, before the University of Georgia vs. Georgia Tech football game on Nov. 24, 2012, raised $1,300 for the cause.
“People would have to pay $10 to get in, but I was able to reach out to Greg Allman and the Drive By Truckers, bands that Zach liked, and they gave me some signed memorabilia. It was all music that he liked and that’s the way I wanted to keep it. I wanted to make it more personal. I had a live auction with those things, which raised a good bit of the money,” Thompson said.
The group also held a garage sale on March 2, which raised $600 in addition to the tailgate funds. Those events, among donations made on the scholarship’s website and proceeds from the wristbands printed with the phrase “You’re my blue sky,” and nail butter, both donated products, contributed to the final amount of $2,400, which was presented to ESP on April 2.
“Me and (ESP Office Manager Colleen Jenkins) had talked about what I wanted to do with the money and what I think Zach would have wanted to do with the money and I decided that it should go to whoever needs it the most,” Thompson said.
ESP Special Events and Communications Coordinator Jordan Beaman appreciates the contribution the scholarship was able to make towards children in need.
“We decided that it would go towards someone who couldn’t pay for camp at all, what we worked out that it would help two kids in full,” Beaman said.
McArthur wants to continue the project for many years to come.
“We want to help as many kids as possible. This is not stopping,” McArthur said.
McArthur also hopes that the scholarship will aid in the healing process for both them and Zach’s parents.
“(His parents) are just so thrilled that this is still going and you can see that they are healing. And this is a lot of what’s helping us heal,” McArthur said. “I want to keep him alive in that sense. Lauren and I wanted to make sure everyone knew that he is going to make a difference.”
Photos courtesy of Lauren Thompson and Emily McArthur
