Challenger League Opening Day is set for Sunday April 28th, 2019
Again this year Morristown National will host Opening Day for the Morris County Challenger League (www.mccll.org).
- First Games start at 2:00pm, Sunday, April 28th, 2019 at Burnham Park.
- Closer games start at 4:00pm
This organization offers a great experience for handicapped kids of all ages and levels of ability and if you haven't seen--or participated in--one of these events you are missing something truly special. The kids have CP, varying levels of autism, muscular dystrophy, and other serious challenges but you'd never know if from their attitudes.
In past years our days with MCCLL have been covered by the Daily Record and Channel 2.
The MCCLL has four teams--two of them are younger kids and two with age 11-teen-age kids. Most importantly, the event works ONLY because the host league (that's us!) supplies a large number of its league players as volunteer "buddies" who shepherd the Challenger League kids through the game. We usually get a good mix of our softball and baseball players, though sometimes we're a bit short on numbers--we really need at least 30 per game--and there are two concurrent games.
Here's what we need:
- Volunteers to run the snack stand.
- A coordinator to get souvenirs for the Challenger players.
- People to prepare both the majors and the minors fields at Burnham.
- Plus a couple of Buddy Coordinators for each field.
- If someone is a good (or just an avid) photographer, the event lends itself to some memorable shots.
- Most importantly, we need our MNLL softball and baseball players, aged 10 and up, in uniform at the games.
The first games — @ 2 PM — will match the Challenger teams against each other. You will never forget the sight of a kid in a wheelchair hitting a ball and being pushed around the bases (sometimes on one wheel!) by one of our player Buddies. The second games--closer to 4:00 PM-- on each field match the most able of the Challenger kids against teams composed our players who are handicapped by some special rules to even things out. Let's just say our kids have never won one of these games!
Our players who have done this never forget it. Many have done it 2 or more times and look forward to the opportunity. It's a great way to help remind us how lucky we are and help some who haven't been as fortunate.
Game details:
- 2PM Morristown National =
- 2PM Morristown National =
- 4PM Morristown National =
- 4PM Morristown National =
Thanks and see you on Sun April 28, 2019.