At 92, most people around that age would enjoy a quiet evening inside watching whatever happens to be on cable paired with a bit of good food, but not this wonderful Trail Blazers fan.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way and for this 92-year-old Portland Trail Blazers fan who wanted to see her favorite player at her first Blazers game, a way was found.
According to Complex.com, for as long as she could remember Merle has been rooting for the Portland Trailblazers. When the opportunity arose for her to finally see her first professional basketball game after 45 years watching from home, she wanted to make it extra special. Merle wanted to meet Damian Lillard.
Vital Life Foundation, a group that supports causes and resources that benefit the senior community, heard that Merle was on her way to the Moda Center last Thursday and got the ball rolling on social media to make it happen. The greater internet, being the awesome people that we are, took the hashtag #HelpMerleMeetLillard and ran with it.
Merle is a life-long Blazer fan is coming to her first game tonight! @TrailBlazerNews #HelpMerleMeetLillard #RipCity pic.twitter.com/MztWFYsrRL
— Vital Life Foundation (@VLFoundation) November 5, 2015
Literally hours late,r the Portland Trailblazers got wind of the hashtag and arranged for a meet up. The entire meet and greet between the two was caught on Vine and you’d better believe that dozens of photos were taken. A couple are on twitter for all of us to enjoy.
92-year-old Merle meets her favorite NBA player, @Dame_Lillard. #HelpMerleMeetLillard pic.twitter.com/h4DiTrqttW
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 6, 2015
Cliche to say but faith in humanity restored. Props to the Trail Blazers for arranging it all and for Lillard being such a class act and a model player.