LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Each year, Shriners Children’s Hospital sends more than 20 ambassadors from locations around the world to join the Shriners Children’s Open on the PGA Tour. This year, 14-year-old Allison Dugger represented Lexington in the Las Vegas tournament.
Dugger shared she has a love for sports. She grew up watching football with her dad, and she is now a manager for the Frederick Douglass High School football team. She also enjoys competitive cheer, which she does with Bluegrass Athletics. Golf, however, sits a little lower on her sports list.
“I’ve always really wanted to be a golf person, but I couldn’t really get the appeal until I like actually saw it,” said Dugger. “I really like golf now.”
This stop is part of a longer course Allison has traveled since she was eight years old.
“I was diagnosed by my pediatrician with scoliosis,” Dugger said, “and they referred me to Shriners Children's Hospital. From there I got an MRI at UK Hospital and I got my first brace.”
Her time at Shriners has included visits for braces and a spinal fusion surgery. Actually, this trip to Las Vegas took place exactly a year after that surgery.
When she first heard about this opportunity, Dugger joked, “I was like, yes, I get a week out of school.”
“It ended up being a really great experience, not just to get out of school, but also to create new bonds with friends and stuff like that.”
One of these bonds took place when Dugger met her friend Ben, the Shriners ambassador from the Boston location.
“I remember I saw him sitting at a table with is dad at breakfast, and I was like, oh can I sit over here? And I sat down and we instantly became friends,” Dugger shared. “I think it was really great just to meet other people that have gone through similar things as me that live all the way across the country.”
Meeting people with similar stories helped Dugger learn lessons for her own journey.
“I got to take away so much from my experience, not only to not give up, but to also not listen to what other people are saying, because I definitely had a lot of bullying going on, especially in middle school when I had my brace. I finally just realized that it is not their place to judge, and if they want to judge, they can, because they don’t know me personally.”
To learn more about the Shriners mission, visit shrinerslexington.org.
