Miracle League
Miracle League is a community service club at Cherry Hill East that pairs student “buddies” with children and adults with mental or physical disabilities for inclusive baseball games. The goal of Miracle League is to remove physical barriers and allow more people to have fun playing baseball. Baseball games are played at Boundless Field, a barrier-free, accessible baseball field in Cherry Hill near Jake’s Place playground. Ms. Radbill is the advisor for this popular club. The club officers and chairpeople are Maddie Paritsky (‘23) (President), Jenna Garfinkle (‘23) (Vice President) and Sarah Greenspun (‘23) (Vice President), Noah Shapiro (‘23) (Membership), and Jess Rosen (‘23) (Social Media). Miracle League is a great way to get involved at East and is a fun and rewarding club. Students who participate in Miracle League attend weekly Saturday morning baseball games during the fall and spring seasons and participate in some occasional club fundraisers. Due to pandemic health and safety protocols, Miracle League was shut down for almost 2 years, but it is back up and running again in full swing. Students who like to make new friends, help others, and enjoy getting outside to take part in baseball games should be sure to check out the Miracle League Club at East.
Q&A with Maddie Paritsky, President of Miracle League
Q: In what ways does your club give back to the community?
A: “A lot of the people that go to the events are East students who are there and some adults that have kids there but it’s mostly members from East. A lot of kids and adults find it hard for them to do the activities and they sort of need help, which is why we are there, and we go along with them and make sure they are having a fun time,” -Maddie Paritsky (‘23)
Q: Why do you feel East needed this club?
A: “There are a bunch of community service clubs, but Miracle League is very different; a lot of others are fundraisers, but this is very one-on-one and hands on with people which I think is a super different experience than a lot of the other community service clubs,” -Maddie Paritsky (‘23)
Q: How much does it mean to you to get to organize this club?
A: “I love it. I started as a freshman, and I fell in love with it . . . now that I am President, I am getting my friends involved and getting underclassmen involved. I just love showing people that think ‘it’s Saturday I don’t want to go somewhere for school on a Saturday,’ but it’s not school you get to help out kids,”-Maddie Paritsky (‘23)
Q: What events are you planning for the year?
A: “We are probably going to have a fundraiser sometime in the winter but there is no winter season . . . so all of the rest of the games this year will start back in the spring,” -Maddie Paritsky (‘22)
Q: How have your events impacted the community in prior years?
A: “It has been going on for a while and interacting with the kids is really important so keeping that going for future years is really important,”-Maddie Paritsky (‘23)