Nine-year-old Katie Smith, unaccustomed to cheers, was soaking up the applause with obvious delight as she ambled to third base, flashing a sunshine smile to her mom, Donna Smith of Wheaton, and her grandparents. They were among the boisterous bleacher seat fans at the Rising Stars Buddy Baseball game in Wheaton’s Briar Patch Park.
Camille Dieboldt, 9, of Wheaton gently guided Katie around the bases, one arm around her shoulders.
This was a game in which everybody won. “Nobody’s ever out. Everybody’s safe,” explained the purple-shirted Camille, when she had successfully maneuvered Katie, whose yellow shirt denoted she was a Rising Star athlete, to home plate.
The Rising Stars, ages 5 to 17, are extraordinary. Each is challenged by a mental or physical disability, some of them severe–Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, attention-deficit disorder, among others–but their handicaps are forgotten on the baseball field thanks to their purple-shirted young buddies.
The Wheaton Junior Woman’s Club, an affiliate of the worldwide General Federated Women’s Club, started the Rising Stars program six years ago. Buddies are young volunteers, many of them siblings of the athletes or children of Junior Woman’s Club members.
Camille’s brother Brockton, 11, pushed his wheelchair-bound cousin Justin Carlson, 11, of Wheaton around the bases. “I’ll do the talking for him,” Brockton said matter-of-factly, volunteering that Justin “likes hitting the ball off the tee, and when you go to third base he says, `Yah.’ “
Players aren’t the only ones who look forward to the weekly game. Parents, too, savor the experience. Peggy Nemec has been bringing her son Tim, 17, from their home in Hinsdale for the last five years, “but it’s worth every mile,” she said. “The nicest part about it is the people from Wheaton. They treat our kids with such respect. They’re just accepted and welcomed here.”
Barbara Doppelt, mother of Bryan, 15, of Glen Ellyn, agreed. “No one is staring like they do so many places. No one makes fun of them. They don’t put them down. I think it’s wonderful.”
This is her son’s fourth year on the Rising Stars red team. She said his skills have improved considerably since he started, but “he doesn’t care about winning or losing. Look at him. He’s having such a great time. He thinks he’s going to play for the Cubs after he does this,” Doppelt said with delight.
Her son let his fingers do his talking, flashing a big thumbs-up sign to his mom as he and his red teammates with their buddies lined up to shake hands at the end of the game with their yellow team opponents.
“As a parent (this program) means a lot to me,” said Burt Kettinger of Wheaton, whose 7-year-old son, B.J., walked to first base, his buddy, Matthew McKee, 9, coaxing him along. “Come on B.J., come on.” A Down’s syndrome child, B.J. has been a Rising Star for three years.
“These kids get left out of so many things,” Kettinger said. “The people who run this program have an appreciation for special needs kids. Most people don’t. It’s gratifying that they care in a society that would rather throw them away than see them born. I’m glad that some stick with them.”
Challenger baseball leagues for special needs children are offered by several DuPage communities, but the Wheaton program is one of the few that emphasizes the basic baseball skills, Nemec said.
Rising Stars coach Mike McKee of Wheaton, whose wife, Karen, is in charge of the program for the Wheaton Junior Woman’s Club, confirmed that teaching the skills of baseball is a major thrust of the five-week session. “We try to emphasize learning how to throw, how to hit. They really do develop,” he said, praising the progress of his players.
To McKee, the Rising Stars session, which ended July 30, gives everyone “a taste of old-fashioned summer baseball. For the buddies, it’s a chance to intermingle with kids who have the appearance of having a disability but who enjoy life as much as they do.”
Cheryl Barnes of Wheaton started the Rising Stars program six years ago. At the time she was vice president of the Junior Woman’s Club, and she also had three healthy sons who loved playing baseball. She learned about a similar program from a television show and decided to import the idea to Wheaton. “I know how much baseball means to (my sons), and I know how much it means to all little kids to be able to play,” she said.
Other club members readily agreed, although special education experts and park district officials had not been as encouraging.
“We were told that we couldn’t do it,” Barnes recalled. The experts claimed it wasn’t possible to mix mentally and physically handicapped kids, that the physically handicapped kids would consider it to be a stigma to play with mentally handicapped kids, that mixing kids of different ages wouldn’t work.
The buddy system, too, was questioned. “They said you’re not going to get non-handicapped kids who will feel comfortable working with these kids,” Barnes explained.
She and the other club members, recruiting their husbands as coaches and children as buddies, decided to try it anyway without the experts’ assistance.
The program met with immediate success. “We didn’t find any of that at all,” she said. “Everybody was there with a spirit of giving. They were having a good time and learning. It turned out great.”
Her own sons Jim, now 14, Jason, 12, and Ben, 8, were among the first buddies, and her husband, Jim, organized the coaching staff.
Although the Barnes family members no longer participate because their own baseball game schedules conflict, Cheryl Barnes believes the experience is as rewarding for the buddies as it is for the athletes.
“Rising Stars kids don’t give up. They have a determination. They are just so thrilled to be out there in a baseball uniform and to get a trophy at the end for participation. They don’t hang their head when they miss a ball,” she said, noting that regular Little League players have a lot to learn from them.
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Athletes or volunteers interested in participating in next summer’s Rising Stars session can call Karen McKee at 630-510-0716.
