A partnership between Extra Special People and Miracle League is raising funds to build baseball facilities accessible to children with special needs. The Athens-area nonprofit ESP serves children and young adults with developmental disabilities in 30 counties in Northeast Georgia. Executive Director Laura Whitaker says the effort is well underway.
“Over the next year we’ll be raising funds, before we went public with it we already raised $250,000 and it’ll take about another 750 [thousand] to build a complex," Whitaker said.
She says that complext will benefit the entire community.
"Then the goal with the $1 million dollars is to build an accessible playground and an accessible splash pad so that kids in the community can play alongside kids with disabilities.”
Miracle League teams play on custom-designed, rubberized turf that accommodates wheelchairs and other devices.
The eventual goal is to link all 300 Miracle Leagues throughout the country to a fully accessible camp hooray in Jackson County.
“We already have 70 acres and one all the miracle leagues will get to come go to camp together here. That’s kind of the home run, but first base is definitely building our own miracle league here in the Athens area.”
ESP kicked off the partnership with the “Brunch on the Bases” at the Univdersity of Georgia's Foley Field on August 23.
For more information, to volunteer or donate, visit espmiracleleague.com extraspecialpeople.com.