Miracle League of the Lakeshore celebrates 10 years

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 15, 2024

MANITOWOC – This year’s opening day for the Miracle League of the Lakeshore, a program of Goodwill North Central Wisconsin (NCW), was accompanied by an even larger than normal celebration.

The season kicked off with a community-wide celebration of the league’s 10th year of operation.

“Opening night went great,” Tim Wavrunek, mission team leader of community programs at Goodwill NCW, said. “It was one of the few nights where weather wasn’t an issue.”

The Miracle League offers children and teens with disabilities opportunities to play baseball in an organized, non-competitive league on a safe, accessible field.

“Goodwill NCW is proud to support the Miracle League season for our players, families and communities, as part of our mission to ‘Elevate People by Eliminating Barriers to Employment,’” Wavrunek, who has been with Goodwill NCW for 19 years, said. “The Miracle League allows children and teens with disabilities to build valuable skills they carry forward into their future.”

Wavrunek said Goodwill NCW supports three Miracle Leagues under its umbrella, with Lakeshore being one of them.

“Goodwill provides the infrastructure and leadership that may be needed to help run the leagues and maintain their sustainability,” he said.

Wavrunek said the leagues are typically open to four to 19 year olds – once players age out, there aren’t any opportunities for them to continue playing.

Miracle League of the Lakeshore, he said, runs things a bit differently than the other two leagues Goodwill currently supports.

“Once players get above the age limit, Laura Ziemer, Miracle League of the Lakeshore program leader, saw a need to continue providing something more for the older players,” he said.

Wavrunek said Ziemer helped create four teams of 19- or 20-plus-aged players.

“Most Miracle Leagues are the four to 19-year-old range,” he said. “Typically, that falls under the guidelines of the league. We make sure we provide the service to as many people as possible but keep it appropriate so as many players can experience it as possible.”

The season

Though a bit shorter season than a typical Little League Baseball season, Wavrunek said “it’s a good length of time for the league’s players.”

“The season is eight weeks long,” he said. “Throughout the season, players are paired with community volunteers who assist and encourage them during the games. Umpires, announcers, coaches and team helpers also make up the more than 200 volunteers who are a part of the 2024 season. There are a lot of positive social aspects of being part of a team. If it wasn’t for the volunteers, the Lakeshore League wouldn’t exist. It’s the greatest couple of hours a week a person can spend.”

Ziemer said she was hopeful the  league would work in Manitowoc.

“Before all of this was a reality (in Manitowoc), a colleague of mine and I drove to Green Bay to see a Miracle League game,” she said. “We were like, ‘how do we bring it to Manitowoc?’ On a whim, we decided to do that, and here we are 10 years later.”

Since the Lakeshore chapter of the league began, Ziemer said “it’s been great to see the community involvement.”

“We raised $475,000 in a year because of our community and started our first season in 2014 – it was amazing to be out there for the first year,” she said. “It’s been fun to see the growth because some of our (first season) players are still out there, and we have new players. Some have graduated and are now buddies with some of the younger players. It’s been cool to see the relationships and confidence build.”

The Miracle League of the Lakeshore games are played at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday at Goodwill Miracle Field of Dreams, located at Miracles Park, 1840 S. 35th St. in Manitowoc.

This year, Wavrunek said the Miracle League of the Lakeshore has 120 players.

Initial investment

Though getting volunteers and players for the league is time-consuming and difficult at times, Wavrunek said the biggest undertaking is getting an accessible facility.

“From a resource perspective, financially and developing the community partnerships – that’s a lot,” he said. “This league doesn’t exist in a vacuum without our community partners, our relationships with other funding sources, our parks and recreation facilities and community members. Getting players is probably one of the easier parts of the process.”

Building fields costs money, so Wavrunek said Goodwill does what it can to help.

“Goodwill is the main supporter of building the fields,” he said. “Not only financially, but also helping navigate capital campaigns, finding funding sources with our community partners and community foundations, writing grants and finding other donors to contribute to the costs of building fields.”

Once the fields are built, Wavrunek said, they are deeded back to the city.

“The Lakeshore field is owned by the City of Manitowoc,” he said. “Goodwill has a preference for all scheduling for the field, but other community groups can use the field where they can reserve through the parks and recreation department – but priority scheduling is reserved for the Miracle League.”

The initial investment needed to build a field, Wavrunek said, “has gotten much more expensive.”

“Though I’ve been a part of Goodwill for 19 years, I more recently moved into my current role, so I wasn’t a part of the field built in Manitowoc,” he said. “When I was in Eau Claire about nine years ago, the little field we built with some bleachers and a small outbuilding with some bathrooms cost $500,000. If we were looking at building a field from scratch from the ground up, I have no doubt it would be $800,000 today.”

Wavrunek said Goodwill has kicked every field construction off with a contribution from Goodwill NCW.

“As a group and a community that has built these facilities, including the community foundations and philanthropic individuals and other organizations – we couldn’t do it without our partners,” he said. “I also believe there are some national monies as well that were accessed. It’s not a small undertaking where you wake up one morning and say, ‘let’s build a field and get it going in place.’”

Leader continuity

Wavrunek said like any successful business or program, having continuity at the top with leadership is a big key to success.

“One of the biggest pieces of 10 years of success in the Manitowoc league is we’ve had the same program leader,” he said. “She recruits all the buddies and takes care of the day-to-day pieces. She is the conduit between Goodwill and the community. Having Laura at the top is a big reason for the success of the program.”

To ensure safety in the league and help make everyone feel safe and comfortable, Wavrunek said everyone 18 or older goes through a background check before being able to participate in the league.

“We want to make sure we are putting people – appropriate people – in place to work with our players and our families,” he said. “Laura handles those day-to-day aspects through the season and during the off-season.”

The participants

Through all the planning, building fields and making sure there is an ample amount of volunteers and players, Wavrunek said, at the end of the day, “it’s all about the participants.”

“The reactions of the players who step on the field twice a week are priceless,” he said. “It allows kids to take part in an activity tens of thousands of other kids within the State of Wisconsin may take for granted – they can grab their bat and glove, walk out the door and go play ball.”

The league, Wavrunek said, allows kids with disabilities to be recognized for their abilities instead of their disabilities.

“This often happens with any person with barriers,” he said. “This opportunity allows their abilities to shine through for them, their families and the community. The games look a little different, but these kids have it in them to navigate it with those differences accounted and accommodated for.”

Wavrunek said the reaction of the kids playing is “transformational.”

“If you’ve never been to a game, you get to see these kids be kids,” he said. “As you watch the game, their barriers or their disabilities fade into the background –  that is the most gratifying piece for me.”

Wavrunek said the parents of the participants also have a lot of emotions watching games.

“Many parents probably never thought they’d have the opportunity to sit in the stands and watch their children play a game,” he said. “Before a league like this, they had to be right next to them and assisting them – we take care of that for them. The parents cheer them on, watch them play, compete and learn what teamwork is all about.”

As Miracle League of the Lakeshore celebrates its 10th season, Wavrunek said, “we have no plans on the leagues going away.”

“Outside of the initial investment, these leagues are not simply started because it’s the flavor of the month type of thing,” he said. “It’s right in line with our mission to elevate people by eliminating barriers to employment, and this is one of the first steps to doing that – inclusion in a community. Without that, employment doesn’t happen. Granted, that could be down the road quite a ways for a lot of these individuals, but ultimately, it has to start somewhere.”

Above all else, Wavrunek said, “I love going to the games and being a part of it.”

“I go every week, announce games and hang out with players,” he said. “You could be having the worst week ever, but going to watch a game washes that away because it is such a pure impact (on the participants) and the families. We have families who come up to us all the time and say, ‘we never thought we’d hear our child’s name announced for anything.’”

And that, Ziemer said, is what it’s all about.

“I’m thankful for it all,” she said. “All of my coaches have been amazing,” he said. “We also have a committee that works on bringing other things to our league. We have Halloween events planned.” 

To learn more about the league or to inquire about volunteering, visit goodwillncw.org/mll.