Building Our Field of Dreams

by Michele Maxey

Centrally located in rural Mississippi is a small town with a population of no greater than 8,000 people that boasts quite possibly the most loving and caring people who ever lived. Philadelphia is nestled approximately 60 miles from the nearest shopping mall or college football stadium. Philadelphia is known for many things that we are quite proud of. Philadelphia is the home of the famous bluegrass singer, Marty Stuart, and the famous football player, Marcus Dupree. It is also home to Peyton & Eli Manning's mother, Olivia. The Neshoba County Fair is a tradition around here that is a weeklong celebration that houses thousands for a week full of fun and entertainment like no other. The Choctaw Indian Fair is another favorite around here that shows off a unique culture. At first glance, our town looks like any other rural town with a few places to eat, a few shops, and your regular flow of traffic. But behind all of the usual daily activities lays a wonderfully diverse community that is willing to step up and pull together regardless of the circumstances. 

I grew up approximately 20 miles north of Philadelphia in a much smaller town, but Philadelphia is my home. My husband and I have two children: Hayes, 16, and Grace, 13. Grace is a very typical teenage girl who loves her friends, sports, and her cell phone. Hayes is a quite special, easy to love angel who is totally blind and autistic. We work in the community, our children go to school here, we go to church here, we play sports here, and we are fully vested in our children’s future in this small town. 

About 8 years ago I was approached by another concerned caregiver about forming a baseball league for children with special needs. I thought of all the possible opposition I would come up against, and I set out to divide and conquer. Much to my surprise, I found absolutely no one who disliked the idea and plenty that wanted to help. The next year, after much planning and discussion, Diamond Dreams was started. It is a baseball league for children ages 4-17 with special needs. We started with 11 children and last season we had 4 teams with a total of 65 children. We have a large diverse group of children from 5 different counties and 4 different school districts. These children’s diagnoses range from mild developmentally delayed to severely impaired, both mentally and physically. We currently use our wonderful parks and recreation facility during the fall of each year. We wanted to provide not only the children with the same experience the other typically developing children have, but their parents as well. We wanted the parents to have a few minutes where they could be “regular” parents not having to assist their child with an activity. We work on a buddy system where each child is paired with an able bodied teenager/adult that assists in whatever aspect is needed. We ask for sponsors throughout our community for donations for uniforms for each player and the necessary equipment. In recent years, we have been able to provide a light dinner for the children after each game to ease the load for the parents when they get home. We have local “celebrities” come to throw out the first pitch of each game, and we even had a local pilot volunteer his time to give our children a personal fly over last year at the last game!! Our local radio stations have been absolutely wonderful in providing advertisement for all activities. One local radio announcer has provided us with music between innings and given us a play by play of each game. We have the children’s caregiver fill out a personal sheet with facts about the child and then the child is announced as they are up to bat. We have a banquet at the end of the year to give a trophy to each player and to acknowledge our seniors. Local volunteers provide music for this occasion, and we cater it as well. We have also been able to provide an outstanding fireworks display compliments of a local business and friend that ends our season. 

So many local groups and charities have volunteered to assist these children. This seems to give both sides of the fence a great perspective. Our children love the attention and the volunteers get to experience our children and realize how blessed they are and what our children can bring to the table as well. They have so much in common once that initial boundary is broken. We have volunteers for singing our national anthem at each game, and one of our local school color guards performs prior to each game as well. Our local schools have been so helpful in helping us locate children who would benefit from this league. We have been able to make it a yearly tradition for our group to play with a softball team from a nearby town on their “big” field. Our kids love it and so do the softball girls. It came about by a player of ours getting to play some with her high school team and they came to her Diamond Dream’s game to cheer her on. So many wonderful relationships are being made!! 

This league functions solely by donations from volunteers/sponsors and fundraisers, but we initially started out with the vision to provide this league with their very own handicap accessible field. A big part of that would be a turf field and handicap accessible dug outs. Turf would allow wheelchairs, walkers, and children with braces to move more freely. We are so thankful for the facilities we have that have been provided for us, but we have finally gotten to the chapter where we feel we need to start fundraising for our field. We appreciate this opportunity, as well as the fact that Shelter Insurance recognizes that big things are happening in small towns!