League forming for kids with special needs

by Heather Perlberg

    A committee of parents, educators and medical professionals is filling the need for sports programs in the Southeast Area geared toward special needs children and teenagers.
 

   Edgemere-Sparrows Point Recreation Council’s ASPIRE program, for youth between the ages of about 6 and 18, will start in May with adaptive baseball.
    The program’s name stands for Adaptive Sports Program Inspiring kids to Reach Excellence.
    “We are hoping to adapt so every child can participate at their level and have fun,” said Lynette Christensen,   a physical therapist who works with students in Baltimore County public schools.
    Tim Dodge, program liaison with the ESP Rec Council, has been meeting with the committee members advocating for the program to talk about potential obstacles and working within rec council guidelines.
    ASPIRE “fit really well into our philosophy,” Dodge said. “There’s nothing better than to have someone wanting to start something that the community really needs, and it’s our job to empower them to do so.”
    Though similar programs exist in Parkville and Towson, there are no athletic organizations for local kids with special needs or disabilities.
    “It’s definitely something we are focusing on, offering programs you won’t find anywhere else in the Southeast Area,” Dodge said.
    Committee member Milissa  Jablonski said the program will combine educational and social skills while providing an environment for children with special needs to thrive in athletics. 
    Jablonski’s 14-year-old son, Jake, is autistic. “He loves sports. He’s not good at any of them, but maybe he would be in a different atmosphere,” she said.
    Many kids with special needs “are not all able to compete at the rigor or pace [at which] others can compete, but they all have wonderful strengths,” Christensen said. “The goal is not to be about what the kids can’t do, but what they can do. ... They do so much when they participate with peers.”
    Christensen said the program also will provide a way for parents with special-needs children to network and showcase talents of the kids involved.
    “These children will be taught skills that will enable them to play many different sports and therapeutic activities,” Jablon-ski wrote in an e-mail. “The social aspect of this program is just as important because some of the children have no outlet for socializing in an environment where they feel comfortable and accepted as well as a network for parents to volunteer and interact with their children and other parents of children similar to their own.”
    The committee is “not going to just get this program up and running, but its going to flourish in the near future,” Dodge said.
    Adaptive baseball will be played behind Sparrows Point High School on Saturdays at 10 a.m. from May 1 through June 12. The cost is $20 per child, per season.
    “The summer we’ll take to reevaluate the program and in the fall introduce another sport, possibly  adaptive soccer or volleyball,” Jablonski said.

•   An informational meeting and registration will be held March 24 in the cafeteria at Edgemere Elementary School, 7201 North Point Road, at 6:30 p.m. A second registration will be held on March 31 at the same location and time.