Story by Lindsey Chester and Hal Goodtree.

Cary, NC- The Miracle League of the Triangle is about to begin their Spring 2012 season and they are looking for a few good sponsors to support the teams.

The Miracle of Baseball

Don’t know the Miracle League? It’s a baseball league for special needs kids.

The miracle is the joy of sports for kids and families who never expected it or experienced it.

It’s an everyday miracle – you can see it in the pictures or at a game. It never gets old.

Sponsors Make it Possible for Everybody

Each year the organization fields about 22 teams for both a spring and fall season.  Sponsorship ensures that the families of these athletes can participate without undue financial burden. They pay $35 to join and receive all the instruction and uniforms.

In January, director Traci Brown looks to sign up groups as annual sponsors for the league which covers the two seasons. As the league has grown in participants, so has their need for increased sponsorship. See story.

What Does Sponsorship Mean?

Sponsorship is visible in many ways: company names are displayed on field signage, T-shirts and announced at all games and each season they hold a sponsor appreciation day.

But there is a bigger impact. For $1500/year, a group sponsors the joy of community, baseball and sportsmanship for these kids and their families. Many groups come out and help volunteer on game days to experience the games themselves.

Currently the league knows they need at least 8 additional sponsors.

If you think you would like to get involved, contact Traci Brown directly through email, or call her at (919) 238-0333. Or you can download the sponsor form right here.

2012 Miracle League Team Sponsorship

From staff reports. Photo via Green Acres Farm.

Cary, NC – On Saturday, September 3, children with disabilities will take a break from life in the city while participating in a special Miracle Day at Green Acres Farm in Cary.  Players and families of the Miracle League of the Triangle will receive free admission to the farm and corn maze. More than 200 families have registered to attend.

Green Acres & The Miracle League

Green Acres is a family-owned farm, which is open to the public during the fall and winter seasons.  The farm opens for the fall on September 3 and features family activities such as a corn maze, bounce house, hay rides, pony rides, face painting, and more.  Admission prices and information can be found at www.greenacrescary.com.

The Miracle League of the Triangle is a nonprofit baseball league for children with special needs.  Serving more than 400 children with disabilities per year, the league operates 22 teams in the spring and fall seasons on an adapted, rubberized field in Cary.  Fall season begins September 9, and the league celebrates its fifth anniversary on September 17.  For more information, go to www.miracleleagueofthetriangle.com.

Event Details

WHO:

Children and families of the Miracle League of the Triangle – free admission
General public – standard admission rates

WHAT:

Players and families of the Miracle League of the Triangle will receive free admission to the farm and corn maze.  The farm is open to the general public from September 3 through October 30.

WHERE:

Green Acres Farm and Corn Maze
1132 Morrisville Carpenter Rd
Cary, NC 27519

WHEN:

Saturday, September 3, from morning until dark

Story by Lindsey Chester. Photo by Chris Adamczyk.

Cary, NC- Parents of children with disabilities have through mid-August to register their child to play baseball in a specialized Triangle-area league this fall.

The Miracle League of the Triangle, which is a baseball league for children with special needs, has announced that fall season registration will remain open through mid-August or until all spots are filled. The league plans to grow team rosters over the summer months.

“We will keep registration open as long as possible for families who are interested in joining the Miracle League this fall,” said Executive Director Traci Brown.

The fall season begins September 9 and lasts for approximately nine weeks, with weekend games at Andy’s Foundation Field located at Adams Elementary School in Cary. The field is rubberized and custom-fitted to meet the needs of players with disabilities. Teams do not exceed 15 players, and games last approximately one hour. Player registration is open to all school-aged children (ages five and up) with any disability requiring a current IEP or 504 plan.

In addition to recruiting new players, the Miracle League of the Triangle is also in need of volunteer coaches, umpires, and game announcers. Registration for group volunteers will begin in August.

For more information or to register as a player or coach, please visit www.MiracleLeagueOfTheTriangle.com or contact the league at 919-238-0333.

Photo by Chris Adamczyk

Cary, NC – All week, the NCAA has been holding its Division II baseball championships at the USA Baseball park in Cary. There’s still time to catch the final between Southern Indiana and UC San Diego on Saturday, May 29 at 12:05 PM.

To kick off Championship Week, the Miracle League of the Triangle had its own Home Run Derby. And a crowd of NCAA athletes were there to help kids with disabilities enjoy the day.

To serve is a true gift for the receiver and giver.

Cary, N. C. – Tired of hearing bad news? Rotten kids? Crime? Selfishness? Economic disaster?

There is a lot that goes on in this community that is, well, “good”.  Random and anonymous acts of kindness,  selfless donations of time and money, kids building character by helping others.

St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church sponsors programs that foster these charitable acts.  No big foundations, no adult chairpersons running the show – just caring people quietly guiding each other and sharing their own blessings.

As part of  the two year ”confirmation”  process, St. Michael’s provides guidance to 300 14-18 year-olds to share their gifts.  When I asked Dr. Nina Rizzo, Associate Director High School Youth Ministry, what was going on with the Youth Programs I was blown away.

First I should explain “Confirmation”.  Dr. Rizzo defines Confirmation (along with Baptism and Eucharist) as a ”Catholic sacrament of initiation”.  She told me that “Confirmation, like Baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indelible character on our soul; for this reason you can receive this sacrament only once”.

Nina leads these youths to understand his/her commitment to the life and mission of the Church.  The goal is to have formed teens that are ready “to lead a life of prayer, worship, and service“.  “Youth are expected to fulfill at least two group service projects per year.”  Dr. Rizzo told me that in other similar positions her office phone would ring and parents would ask, “do you have any service work my teen can do?”  So Nina adopted the philosophy to stress that these projects should not be once-in-a-lifetime “chores” to fulfill “a requirement”,  but rather to have service to the community evolve into a “way of life”.

“I wanted to create service opportunities where teens learn, participate, and experience service with the community.  Hopefully this experience would lead to an understanding that service is not a ‘requirement’ but a way of seeing, acting, and being in the world.”

Some Examples

The Brown Bag Ministry and Helen Wright Women’s Shelter are about preparing meals for the hungry and homeless.  Most importantly, these projects provide opportunities for the teens to meet the people they are serving.  For the Brown Bag Ministry 1,000 lunches are boxed, they then drive to Moore Square and distribute the lunches.  At the Helen Wright Shelter, after cooking the food they serve about 40 women at the Shelter and sit with them afterwards.  Teens get an up-close and personal encounter with the poor and needy.   There are an amazing number of hungry people in our own community.  We often think of poverty as some distant problem that only takes place in third world countries.  It’s right here on our own doorstep.  As for the teens, they begin to recognize how richly blessed they are.  Now when they complain that “there’s no food in this house!” teens realize the abundance of food that their parents provide.

Nina tells this story.  Lizzie Mayhew, a participant, started out Saturday morning with her classmates to the Brown Bag Ministry.  She was tired and wished she could have slept in.  Together they bagged lunches – plain and simple – two slices of white bread, one slice of bologna and cheese, a granola bar, and apple.  They drove to Moore Square and immediately a line of men approached the table seeking a ticket stub to receive a lunch.  Many, many lunches were given out.  A man approached the table asking for a lunch but didn’t have a ticket.  He was told that if lunches left over, he could come back and get one.  Lizzie kept an eye out for him.  Extra lunches were set out on the table and people came running to grab them.  Lizzie knew that if she didn’t take one then, the man would never get a lunch.  Quickly she grabbed a lunch, ran over to the man, and tapped him on the shoulder.  He swung around to see her arm extended holding out a boxed lunch.  Lizzie later told us that his eyes beamed with joy and gratitude.  This man made her feel wonderful inside.  But at the same time, she couldn’t believe how a plain sandwich could bring such happiness.  At that moment, she knew how lucky she was. Lizzie has been back several times on an early Saturday morning to fix brown bag lunches.

At Christmas time, the “divide” between the needy and those that have plenty become magnified.  The children make and distribute Thanksgiving baskets,  collect and give out toys through the ”Jesse Tree” (a tree is put in the church lobby with names of children hung on it like ornaments to pick, thereby sponsoring that child), and collecting used bicycles for needy families in the community as part of St. Mike’s Bikes.

Many of the teens are open about the joy it gives them. One of the teens, Steven Santoro, told Dr. Rizzo,  “I learned that not everyone is doing as well as I am.  I feel different now – I feel that I made people happy which made me happy.”  Another student, Robert Gallo, was “inspired to see the amount of people who came out on a cold, rainy day to clean and repair bikes.”

The Miracle League is a service project in which the St. Michael Latino Confirmation class and the H.S. Confirmandees serve together.  Teens “buddy up” with a child with mental and physical challenges to help them to play baseball.  The most revealing lesson teens walk away from this experience is that joy doesn’t come from owning things.  There are people with serious challenges who can experience extreme joy in the simple game of baseball.

I bet not too many of you knew about all this.  It humbled and inspired me.

Please write to us and let us know about other similar activities that you know of that are going on in Cary – “faith-based” or not.  Or make comments below.  Let’s share that joy here in the CaryCitizen.

Mike Curran at Triangle Aquatic Center. Photo by Hal Goodtree.

Cary NC – The Curran Family Foundation completed its sixth full year of service to the community by donating $518,175 to fourteen different health, education and faith based nonprofit organizations that positively impact the lives of children and young adults in 2009.

“Many nonprofit organizations have been negatively impacted by the economy at a time when community needs have increased and we are blessed that the Foundation has been able to help support their efforts to make our community better,” said Foundation President Michael Curran.

According to the Foundation, 98.5% of the 2009 donations were granted to nonprofit organizations in Wake County. Total community donations over the Foundation’s six year history total $3,394,404.

Here are some of the recipients of CFF Grants in 2009:

• April’s Angels
• Hope Community Church
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
• Miracle League of the Triangle
• Muscular Dystrophy Association
• Triangle Aquatic Center
• YMCA of the Triangle

The Curran Foundation was created in 2003 and funded with an initial gift from its founder, Michael G. Curran. Funding came from the sale of Executive Benefit Services, Inc. (“EBS“) to The Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa. Mike founded EBS in 1992 and grew it into one of the largest non-qualified deferred compensation companies in the country. The Principal purchased EBS in 2001 and Mike remained on as CEO and President until his retirement in January of 2005.

Cary, NC – Looking for that fun New Year’s bash, but don’t want to travel too far from home? Luckily, you live in Cary and there are a multitude choices for every style of celebration right here at home.

For the Rock and Roll crowd there’s Connolly’s. They have a price fixe dinner including appetizers and main course, dessert and champagne for  the modest price of $50 per couple. Music will start at 10pm with DJ George spinning disks into the New Year. Or try Spirits Pub & Grub on E. Chatham Street near downtown.  Their event will include live music from Todd Proctor and Friends, hors d’oeuvres, drink specials and a champagne toast at midnight.  Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

If your date wants to dance the night away try Goel’s Plaza (actually located in nearby Morrisville on Aviation Parkway). They boast the largest dance floor in the state and will include a dance contest as part of the evening’s festivities. Tickets are $40 per person before 12/29 and $50 per person thereafter.

Planning an evening of pampered luxury? The Hotel and Spa at the Umstead is just the ticket. You can dance to the 10 piece band Casablanca , while dining on the 5-Course Dinner at Heron’s restaurant. There are seatings at 6 and 9pm. Pricing for dinner is $95 per person, or $150 per couple for dancing or $295 per couple for dinner and dancing. Perhaps driving home after all that revelry is not such a good idea. Why not add in the overnight stay and book the New Year’s Package? For  $500 per couple you get it all: dinner, dancing and overnight stay. They are also offering a New Year’s Day Brunch.

And not to be left out, the fitness enthusiast can enjoy the “Run in the New Year” which includes a 5K race and a 1-mile Fun Run. The run benefits the Miracle League of Cary and is open to runners of all ages and levels. The race begins and ends at the Triangle Aquatic Center behind Cary Towne Center.  The route includes loops around the Miracle League of the Triangle field and Cary Towne Mall.

The Cary Citizen Calendar features events from all over Cary. If you know of something you’d like us to add, please email Calendar Editor Lindsey Chester.

The 5K race starts at the Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC), loops around the nearby Miracle League Field, continues around Cary Towne Mall and completes at TAC. The 1 Mile Fun Run will start and finish at TAC and will also include the loop around Miracle League Field. The pre-registration entry fee for the 5K is $20 and race day entry fee is $25. The 1 Mile Fun Run does not have special pre-registration pricing and is $15. The top three winners in each division will receive certificates and all runners who pre-register will be guaranteed an official RITNY t-shirt.

“We are excited to host an alternative New Year’s Eve event for families and runners that will also bring awareness to The Miracle League of the Triangle,” said Tammi Dittmar, Executive Director of The Miracle League of the Triangle. “This is a fun way to raise money for our organization while actively ringing in the New Year.”

The flat and open course is designed to be accessible for runners of all abilities, and all age groups are encouraged to participate. Packet pick-up and registration will take place on Wednesday, December 30^th, from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Miracle League of the Triangle Field located at Adams Elementary School, 805 Cary Towne Blvd., Cary.  Race Day check-in will take place at the TAC with parking available at Cary Towne Mall.

For more information, please visit www.miracleleagueofthetriangle.com or contact race director Tony Withers via Tammy Dittmar at tdittmar@miracleleagueofthetriangle.com.