St. John's University Athletics
Baseball Team Volunteers With Miracle League Of Long Island
10/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 11, 2010
QUEENS, N.Y. - Members of the St. John's baseball team spent this past Saturday in Selden, N.Y., as volunteers with the Miracle League of Long Island, a charitable organization that provides a baseball league for children with disabilities.
"This day was a great opportunity for our players to give back," said St. John's pitching coach Scott Brown. "It was really something to see all of the smiles on the faces of the kids and their parents and I think our players were impacted by the experience."
The St. John's players spent the afternoon serving as Miracle League Buddies. As a BUDDY, which stands for `Because Unbelievable Dedication Deserves YOU,' the players served to protect kids in the field from batted balls, assist them in batting and running around the bases and encourage them.
"Working with the Miracle League really provided our guys with the chance to step back and look at both the game of baseball and life from a different perspective," volunteer assistant coach Brendan Monaghan added. "It was great playing baseball with the kids and seeing them laugh and smile as they ran around the bases."
"This was just an awesome experience," said redshirt senior Joe Witkowski, who helped organize the Red Storm's visit. "Seeing the looks in the eyes of all the kids and seeing how excited they were to have us there meant the world to me."
Founded in 1997, the Miracle League has grown to 200 chapters that serve 80,000 children around the country. One of the more recent additions, the Miracle League of Long Island was founded in 2009.
The mission of the program is to establish and sustain baseball programs for children with disabilities and provide an opportunity for those individuals to experience the joy and benefits that come from playing our National Pastime. The league aims to help players develop social skills and increase self-esteem, while promoting community support and league sponsorship.
