KUNA — International Week of the Deaf is observed on the last full week of September every year. A Kuna High School football player hopes to spread awareness in a unique way.
Football season is a highlight for many high school students during the school year. Lights illuminate the field on Friday nights, but that's not the only thing that lit up Kuna High School's game recently. Jonathan Edwards took an interest to sign language since he was very young. During the summer he took American Sign Language classes.
"I like to help people so I feel like there's not enough interpreters you say out there, but to kind of put myself in that it could be another step in to the future of helping others," said Jonathan Edwards, Kuna High School football player.
As part of his senior project, Edwards decided to sign the national anthem at a home game.
"Honestly I think it helped me calm down a little bit and to watch him perform that service was really cool," said Sherman Blaser, Kuna High School football coach.
Edwards says he wasn't expecting to get attention.
"At first, I just kind of woke up and it was like at 200 views. I was like, oh that's pretty cool, A few hours later it popped up, blew up and at that point I got a bunch of messages talking about how I should say hi to someone's son because he's deaf or just all this positive stuff and people asking me and telling me good job," said Edwards.
It's an act of kindness that's inspiring others across the globe.
"Back East, even people overseas, people from Germany and China and so forth have sent messages so it's pretty amazing how far it's gone and we're pretty proud of him, what he's accomplished and what he's doing. The fact that it's gotten this big is pretty mind blowing," said Billy Billy Edwards, Jonathan's dad.
Jonathan says he wants to pursue sign language and sports medicine.
