Missouri Southern Softball hosts special day with Miracle League

JOPLIN, Mo. — A community service project over the weekend entailed a whole lot of smiles.

“This is wonderful. The girls are amazing. I’m so glad for this opportunity, and the kids can’t wait to play.”

That would be kids and adults from The Miracle League of Joplin. Their season takes place in the spring at Will Norton Miracle Field.

This day was spearheaded by Missouri Southern senior Abby DeSanto.

“This was very important to me because we did the same thing in high school, and I just remember leaving the event like, it was just very special to me, so I wanted to bring it to Missouri Southern, and just having the kids and the adults to be able to come out and play on a collegiate field I thought would be really fun,” said DeSanto.

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Oh, there was plenty of fun, mugging for the camera, as well. Hot dogs courtesy of softball player’s parents. More importantly, new friendships made.

Sometimes a community service project is so much more than the words, community service project.

“This is definitely something that we’ll think about probably for — just being grateful for what we have and like our physical ability to play softball.”

“We want to have the most community service hours in our athletic department. One of our standards as a program is each student-athlete will have at least 10 hours for the year. Usually, it ends up being — we average about 25 per student-athlete. We usually get over 600 hours of community service per year,” said Hallie Blackney, MSSU Head Softball Coach.

Impressive, not to mention inspiring. College kids making a lasting impression on others by simply being there and being engaged. Because at the end of the day, whether it’s here or life in general, everyone deserves to cross home plate.

By the way, The Miracle League will add more teams next year. Those interested in being a part of it, either as a player or volunteer, can visit this link.

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