


The Duggans, who have two sons, went through the long process through the Department of Children and Families to bring Tuzar Skipper into one of those empty rooms. And we decided we were not going to be two more of those people.” We imagined that someone who had been in the system as long as Tuzar had, had a lot of people fail him along the way, and a lot of people quit on him. “That started a conversation, and I said, ‘Now that we know this information, we have to do something about it.’ We said, if we started asking questions, we were going to be in this for as long as Tuzar wanted us to be part of his life. “Without thinking very much, my husband said, ‘We have two empty rooms at home,’” Kathy Duggan said. Then one game, he didn’t play and, when Tim asked questions, he found out there had been a problem of some kind at his group home. The Duggans were among those in town wowed by what Skipper was doing on the field. with the BIG stop‼️ /xi圜oPTqnf- Pittsburgh Steelers August 10, 2019 Skipper presented Kathy Duggan with the jersey he wore. So there they were at the Meadowlands for the home opener, in the tent with players’ families before the game, in the seats Skipper left for them to watch the Giants play the Bills, and at The Loft, a popular Brooklyn steakhouse for a postgame dinner they will never forget. They were there as he recovered after blowing out a knee, and traveled as far as North Carolina this summer to watch his NFL preseason games with the Steelers. And they have remained in his life, driving hours and hours to Toledo, Ohio, when he realized his first dream, playing college football.
GROWING UP SKIPPER BEFORE AND AFTER FREE
The Duggans, when they learned his circumstances, had opened their home and their hearts to Skipper before his senior season at Norwich Free Academy.

And when he did, it was the culmination of a long, often painful process that took Skipper from one foster home, group home, neighborhood, school and situation to another, from dark places and deep valleys to the top of a mountain.
