K.J. Wright's visit to Moses Lake no coincidence

A lot of us grew up with ABC radio broadcaster Paul Harvey telling us the Rest of the Story. Harvey had a way of tying little known facts and bits of information into not only great storytelling, but brilliant journalism.

Many times, the story behind the story gets lost in the need to sensationalize or post it first. Harvey was a genius in telling us what was important in a world gone wrong that made us understand there is good amid the chaos.

America needs more of that, so here’s a little something I stumbled across.

Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright created quite a stir over the weekend with his visit to Mo Lake. The Columbia Basin 12th Man did the town proud, showing up in droves for autographs. Between the two, they raised more than $11,000 in a little over two hours to help the Moses Lake Medical Team’s humanitarian efforts to provide medical assistance to developing countries around the world. It went off so well you’d swear it was an orchestrated effort, but what the 800 strong who lined the streets from South Balsam to well past Chestnut Street did not know was that it was a chance meeting that set it all in motion.

Back in February, the Moses Lake Medical Team was going through the security process at Sea-Tac International Airport on its way to Nicaragua. The group was delayed 45 minutes because one of its members traveling on a Green Card was held up on a technicality. Because of that delay, MLMT co-founding member Lateef Olaniyan crossed paths with Wright, who was on his way to Orlando.

In casual conversation, the woman checking passports asked why everyone was going to Nicaragua? Olaniyan explained the group was from Moses Lake and headed to Nicaragua for a medical mission.

“This guy next to me turned and asked me to explain our medical mission and what you guys are doing,” Olaniyan said. “I started talking to him about Moses Lake. We’re a group from a small town between Seattle and Spokane and we’ve been going to developing countries since 2008 to help. We just happen to be going to Nicaragua this time. We talked for about 30 minutes just passing through because the line was so long.”

It was a chance meeting at the crossroads.

Olaniyan didn’t know he was talking to a professional athlete whose job it is to knock Colin Kaepernick down as many times as humanly possible. They parted ways after passing through security on their way to separate departing gates. It wasn’t until one of the medical team members asked if he knew who he was talking to. That was when the plan to bring Wright to Moses Lake began to take shape.

“People brought their cellphones out and Googled him and showed me him in uniform. I went wow, if I would have known I would have invited him to Moses Lake to come sign autographs,” Olaniyan said with a laugh. “Someone alerted me to where he was sitting and their just happened to be an empty seat next to him.”

Empty seats, chance meetings and further discussion led to a trip to Moses Lake to help change the world one step at a time. It didn’t even matter that Olaniyan doesn’t watch football or know who last year’s Super Bowl MVP was, they were making plans to make a difference.

“We asked if he would be interested in coming with us on a medical mission” Olaniyan said. “He said he would love to do that too, but it has to be down the road because his fiancée is expecting. But once the baby is born, he said he would love to go on a medical mission with us.”

One last simple twist of fate, Wright’s fiancée is a nurse and she would like to be a part of the medical mission as well.

To borrow a line ... and now you know, the rest of the story.

Rodney Harwood covers sports and business for the Columbia Basin Herald. He can be reached at businessag@columbiabasinherald.com.