Special Needs Opportunities of Duplin County gives the gift of sport

Everybody deserves a chance to experience the joy of participating in organized sports; however, that opportunity was not always available to everyone in Duplin County. That changed for good though, thanks to the Special Needs Opportunities of Duplin County organization.

The organization was founded in 2018 by Brandy Moulton who has spent much of her adult life helping special needs patients as an occupational therapy assistant. Moulton was proud to do her small part in helping the special needs community. She didn’t realize, however, just how big a role she would play in many of their lives until one night at Albertson Missionary Baptist Church when meeting with the head of the Special Needs Baseball of Jacksonville, Jobe Alvis, she had a “lightbulb moment”.

“In 2018 we had a support group that met at our church for children who had special needs. I would do the childcare for them because I’m an occupational therapy assistant, and I just have experience with kiddos who have special needs,” Moulton said.

“One night, Jobe came to talk to the parents, and nobody else actually showed up besides the ones that ran the meeting and me. During that meeting, I just felt like I was supposed to bring it to Duplin County. (It was) a moment where your hair stands on end. It was insane. God brought it to Duplin County through that situation (and) two months later we were ready to start, and it just continued from there.”

The program, which began with just baseball, was an immediate success, and they had a total of 50 players of all ages from children to adults to sign up to play.

Setting up the program was no easy task though, and Moulton said that thankfully many volunteers began to join the organization, and they formed a board made up of members Kevin Hager, Kurt Kildow, Anna Graves, Corey Rose, Samantha Vega, and David Bizzell to decide the best steps for the organization and how to best serve special needs athletes.

“Since 2018 we have had seven board members. The very first board member I had worked with previously. He was a physical therapist that I had worked with . . . Kirk Kildow. He contacted me in August of 2018, and he was like ‘hey I see what you are doing, (and) I want to be a part of it.’” Then Kevin Hagar joined in October of 2018. He was at that point the Wallace-Rose Hill baseball coach and he loved what he did, and he wanted to bring his high school players to come volunteer,” Moulton said.

“That’s kind of how we’ve built over time. It’s just people who have a passion like we do.”

Thanks to the success of the baseball program, Moulton said that Bizzell, who is also the head of the Wallace Parks and Recreation Department, reached out to her about starting a basketball program in 2021. That program now has about 15 participants each year. Most recently in the spring of 2024, they also added a soccer program which also saw solid participation as around 15 athletes signed up to play.

Moulton said that each league is different in how it is approached with baseball being a team event and soccer and basketball being an individual drill-based event.

“We don’t do any kind of refereeing, and it’s all based on ability. For example, we’ll say with basketball all we are doing is doing what the athlete can do, so if all they can do is shoot, we are going to focus on shooting the ball the whole time,” Brandy said.

“Baseball: they go at their level. There is a green team and a blue team usually, and all of the green team hits, and they go around the bases, and all of the blue team hits, and they go around the bases. So, there is no real competition to it at all. It’s all about having fun and giving them the opportunity that they’ve never had before.”

Moulton said that giving athletes an outlet to play is just one of the organization’s three goals as they also aim to support the needs of the family members of individuals with special needs. One way the organization does this is by providing everything to the athletes absolutely free of charge from the field to play on to the team T-shirts and even a free meal at every event, with all of the events and food being paid for by donations.

Moulton said the organization’s third and final goal is to unite local churches of different beliefs and denominations with a common goal of serving the community.

“We try to show that it doesn’t matter what denomination we are. The purpose is to love one another,” Brandy said.

“We try to have two churches at each ballgame to sponsor our games because we provide lunch at each ballgame. So, either churches can split the lunch and the volunteering on the field (or) the court or vice versa. One can do the food; one can do the court.”

To sign up or donate to Special Needs Opportunities of Duplin County; contact Brandy Moulton at (252) 560-6029. Athletes can also sign up to participate on the Special Needs Opportunities of Duplin County Facebook page.