The Miracle League of Alexandria

Wheelchair Basketball Demonstration Game & Clinic – WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DAY!

Today was a terrific day! RPCA/Miracle League/Kelley Cares hosted the Fairfax Falcons in a demonstration basketball game and then ran a clinic with some of the children and adults who attended.

Thanks to Lindsay & Terry for coming along with Michael Briscoe and his girlfriend from DC! Bill, we missed you. Margaret Orlando, Tamika Coleman and Jackie Person from RPCA came out to support too.

I am proud the Fairfax Falcons athletes and Lisa and Erick Road (Falcons Directors) today for coming out and showing everyone that anyone can be an athlete no matter what. We had pretty good support from our youth basketball children and families as well as a touring group from the State Department who happen to come in and then stayed to watch and participate in the clinic.

Thanks again for everyone’s support. They will be coming in the spring to one of the Miracle League games to participate too.

Mac Slover
Director of Sports
Field & Courts Coordinator
City of Alexandria, Virginia
Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all from the Miracle League Advisory Board!

We’d like to share the latest update on the good things happening for the Miracle League.

Mural: The proposed mural on the support building at the Miracle Field is moving closer to reality. lululemon has committed this week to a donation of $1,800 towards the cost of the mural. The MLA and the Kelley Cares Foundation will fund the rest once the final price is known. Pat has initiated contact with the Rec Department’s Arts Office so we can take the necessary steps to get official approval. Looking like we will finally have a mural at the Field.

Youth Sports Advisory Board: On December 14th, the YSAB recognized volunteers from various youth sports groups. They asked the Miracle League to participate so Mac and I decided to nominate Deb Riley (parent of Tucker) and Janet Eissenstat (parent of Jake and Alex) as our volunteers. We had a short timeframe to do the nomination, so I apologize for not contacting the entire Board. However, I can’t think of anyone who would be a better representative of the Miracle League than those two. It was a very nice ceremony and a certificate was given to each recognizing their efforts. Mac, Donnie, Laura, and myself are members of the YSAB and were very proud of how our nominees represented the MLA.

The Upcoming Sports Year: Mac and Jackie have really put together an exciting schedule for 2016. The baseball games will be held as usual, with the one exception being that the youth games will now be played on Wednesdays at 4:30 instead of Friday evenings. This will allow more of the Therapeutic Recreation (TR) kids to play since they will already be at the Lee Center for their after school program. In a major expansion of the Miracle League program, Mac and Jackie have added 7 new sports for the kids to do – Rugby, Lacrosse, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, Floor Hockey, and Basketball. These will be done in three week blocks during the year and will be held on Wednesdays after school. Mac will work with the youth sports clubs for each sport to arrange for help at the games. For example, he already has a commitment from the Alexandria Lacrosse Club to purchase 40 Lacrosse helmets for our players to use. Mac, Jackie, and their respective staffs are to be congratulated for such a bold step to help our special needs community. It is heartwarming to see the program expand in such a fashion. See the full 2016 schedule. Please come to any of the games during the year to see our players learn new sports and show off their skills.

Thanks,
Bill Rivers
Chair, Miracle League of Alexandria Advisory Board

Let’s Move and Play Ball

While our focus is on the special needs community, we support all sports for all kids. An example of that is our support for the Let’s Move and Play Ball Initiative (pdf). We participated in its kick-off event hosted by Alexandria’s Mayor Bill Euille on August 10, 2015. Here’s a picture of the participants.

MLA welcomes Ellsworth, Maine Challenger League

MLA welcomes a sister program in Ellsworth, Maine! A volunteer for our Miracle League was on vacation in Maine and mentioned our program to a friend up there. That friend knew others up there that had special needs kids with limited outdoor recreation opportunities. She contacted Mac and Bill to learn how to begin a program. After they explained how our program worked, she put in a lot of hard work to create a similar one in Ellsworth. It is being done under the Challenger Program within Little League and has many of the same features as our program. She was kind enough to send us some pictures and video from their opening weekend this fall. Take a look and enjoy the happiness of another successful program being launched!

View the Ellsworth, Maine Challenger League Opening Day Photo Gallery.

Video of Challenger League Opening Day from Fox 22 WFVX Bangor, Maine.

About the Miracle League of Alexandria

Welcome to the Miracle League of Alexandria (MLA) website. You will find a lot of information on this site about the MLA, its activities, and the people that it works with. We hope that you find it both useful and informative.

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