Students and faculty at Panorama Elementary have been celebrating one of their own this week.

Principal Liz Ratcliff says that they found out in August Jackson Casteel was chosen to be the Kid Captain for Iowa football’s game against Washington tomorrow, and have been excited to show Casteel their support as he gets ready to take the field with the Hawkeyes. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio some of what they’ve done to show their support.

“A couple of our teachers had some awesome ideas to make some posters and a video. We also had the idea for everyone to wear black and gold. There were these ‘Action Jackson’ t-shirts that were being sold as well, so we had several community members, and staff members and students purchase the ‘Action Jackson’ t-shirts so that we could represent him in the best way possible for Saturday.”

Ratcliff mentions that Casteel is just as excited about being a part of the Hawkeyes football game as the community is that he received the special honor.

“So this was a really special honor for Jackson. I know that the Casteels have been Hawkeye fans forever. Jackson loves the Hawkeyes, he has Hawkeyes apparel on every day and just loves to be immersed in that atmosphere. Obviously, they do go up to Iowa City quite a bit, so for him to be named Kid Captain is just such a cool experience, and I’m so excited that he gets this opportunity.”

Casteel has been to Iowa City to visit the Stead Family Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Chondrodysplasia Punctata X-Linked Recessive Type 1 (CDPC1) shortly after he was born. It’s a rare form of dwarfism that’s estimated to affect less than 150 people across the world. He also received a handful of other diagnoses over the years. Ratcliff explains that this hasn’t stopped Casteel from becoming an integral part of Panorama Elementary.

“We love Jackson. I mean, Jackson is such a unique kiddo. R.C. and Sarah are wonderful people, they’re amazing advocates for him. I’ve always said from the beginning, we knew that we were going to have some challenges along the way just because of all of his unique needs, but we have an amazing team of teachers, people from our AEA (Area Education Agency) that support us, our nurses, our staff. We learn from Jackson every single day. In fact, he probably teaches us more than we teach him. He’s just such an amazing kid, he lights up our hallways, he lights up our classrooms, and we love having him here at Panorama.”

Tomorrow’s game between the Hawkeyes and the Washington Huskies will start at 11am.