New for 2016 – A mural to celebrate the courage of our players!
Read the PRESS RELEASE
The Miracle League of Alexandria, the Kelley Cares Foundation, the City of Alexandria, lululemon, and others in the community have combined their resources to have an artist paint a mural on the support building at the Kelley Cares Miracle Field. The mural will highlight the courage of our players in playing sports and just living their lives. It’ll incorporate their own artwork, along with the concepts of artist Matt Corrado and creator Nancy Belmont.
There will be an unveiling of the mural at the opening game of the adult Spring 2016 season on April 23rd. More details to follow. And follow this site for updates on the actual painting of the mural!!
Lacrosse!
Another Miracle dream come true! So proud of our Miracle League children. We began our new Adaptive Miracle Program with Lacrosse. The children had so much fun. Thanks to the Kelley Cares Foundation for the donation of the 40 sticks and the Alexandria Lacrosse Club for the donation of the 40 helmets and leading the clinics for the next three weeks. You guys rock!!!!
Mac Slover
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.
