What did MEC chairman Capt. Brian Roseen do when he discovered a need for wheelchair-accessible baseball fields in his community?
He pulled off a near-miracle, with the help of the Miracle League of Minnesota, a not-for-profit organization which provides opportunities for children with special needs to play baseball.
It all started when Roseen was playing catch with his son, Blake, at a park in Lakeville, Minn. A young boy in a wheelchair approached and asked to join them, but he was unable to maneuver his chair through the sod surrounding the field, let alone the door of the dugout.
It was a discouraging moment, and Roseen couldn’t stop thinking about it. After researching wheelchair-accessible baseball fields, he found the Miracle League of Minnesota and successfully convinced the Lakeville City Council to build such a field at King Park. There was only one thing standing in his way: $400,000 for the field’s construction, scoreboard, and landscaping.
A former ski jumper, Roseen jumped at the opportunity to raise the money necessary to turn his dream into a reality. Read the full story of how he did it, and how his airline family pitched in to help.