Making Miracles: Capital Health Provides Boost to Inclusive Baseball League

HAMILTON, NJ - The Miracle League of Mercer County has collaborated with Capital Health to reach a new five-year naming rights deal on their field at the Sawmill Facility in Hamilton.

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The facility will now be officially named ‘The Capital Health Stadium at the Miracle Field of Dreams.”

The collaboration will provide the Miracle League with a huge boost in finances as Capital Health will pledge $10,000 a year for the next five years to the programme, league officisal have confirmed.

“Capital Health is thrilled to be part of an organization that provides a safe and inclusive environment for their athletes in Mercer County,” said Samuel J. Plumeri, Jr., chairman, Capital Healthcare Inc. Board of Trustees. “As someone who has always loved baseball, giving children the opportunity to play no matter what their limitations is priceless.”

Established in 2005, The Miracle League Mercer County, a nonprofit organization that provides baseball opportunities to individuals with special needs, is part of a national network of Miracle Leagues that exist all over the country and beyond.

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Just the 15th chapter of the organization, and the first in the entire northeastern region of the United States, Mercer County’s Miracle League is now one of 300 Miracle Leagues that span across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico and even one in Australia.

“ The whole idea is promoting full inclusivity and providing what we call ‘barrier-free space’ so that any child or young adult - no matter their disability - they would have a place to play and be together,” Dan Sczweck, Executive Director of the Miracle League of Mercer County, told TAPinto Hamilton. “We are proud to say that we serve a great area - we are the Miracle League of Mercer County but we go well beyond those borders. We now serve individuals and families coming from 10 different counties and three different states.”

The programme has grown massively since its beginnings as a traditional baseball league in the spring and fall seasons and now provides programming 12 months a year.

“We’re doing clinic work - individually and in small groups - with kids,” Sczweck shared. “We’re doing social events where we allow our players and families to just come together and gather and have a safe space where they feel welcome and enjoy themselves.

“We do movie nights, we have trunk-or-treats on our field, we have bonfire nights, bowling events - a lot of fun events so that people can come together and so they can have a good life,” he added, concluding that the ultimate goal of the league is to “provide opportunities.”

“We want our friends and our kids involved in the programming to have great life experiences just like anybody else.”

Pointing to some of the most recently highlights of league play Sczweck reflected on their travel team’s 2023 ‘amazing trip’ to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where players participated in a week-long tournament with three other Miracle Leagues.

In July, he continued, Mercer County got to host its own regional tournament that included Miracle Leagues from Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

This new deal with Capital Health will help provide so many opportunities for the Miracle League of Mercer County and help keep up these incredible programmes,” Sczweck said.

“We’re really excited about this collaboration between Capital Health and the Miracle League - obviously all the programmes that I’m mentioning are wonderful things and we are building out the capacity to be able to provide these programmes year-to-year.

“But obviously the more we do the more expenses we take on and we are a nonprofit organization. So our goal is not to put those costs back on our families.

“We want to keep those costs as minimal as possible.”

The Miracle League relies on the community to come through on fundraising events and this new financial boost gives them the opportunity to budget for the next five-to-ten years.

“We are able to guarantee to our families that these great programmes we’re building aren’t going to go away because we have local businesses that are so community tied-in, like Capital Health.”

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