Help the Miracle League by Riding the Carousel

On Saturday September 12th, the Miracle Strip Carousel at Pier Park will be hosting a fund-raiser for the Miracle League of the Emerald Coast. Miracle League is a baseball league for children with disabilities. 100% of the proceeds from all ticket sales between 12-4pm will be donated to the Miracle League to help defray the costs of uniforms, bats, balls and other supplies needed by the league. Single tickets are $3 per ride or $5 for an all day pass.

Join us to help a great cause.

Teddy & Jenny Meeks
Miracle Strip Carousel

History of the Miracle League of the Emerald Coast:

After realizing there are 5,000+ children in Bay County between the ages of 3 and 19 who are unable to participate in conventional baseball leagues due to physical or mental disabilities the Rotary of Panama City Beach decided to spearhead the development of a local Miracle League.

The Panama City Beach Rotary Club, a small club of 55 members and a lot of heart, approached the City of Panama City Beach for assistance. The Panama City Beach City Council seeing the need for “an adaptive recreational facility open to children of all ages and abilities where no child is turned away” unanimously voted to designate an area of Frank Brown Park for the development of a facility that would accommodate Miracle League players. The sportsplex could not have been a more perfect location as the entire infrastructure is in place.

The City agreed to assume responsibility for scheduling, maintaining and operating all programs provided the Panama City Beach Rotary Club along with the Miracle League of the Emerald Coast assumes the task of organizing the new league and generating funding for the fields construction.

Miracle League Field Christened by a Bunch of Winners

It was a perfect day for baseball as several Bay County youths were able to play ball at the new Miracle League Field in Frank Brown Park, Panama City Beach.

The organization is still putting plans together for the season, so if you know any youths in Bay County between the ages of 3 and 19 who may be interested in playing in the Miracle League, please visit their website . The Miracle League also needs “Buddies” who work with the players on the field to win the game!

Several local dignitaries were there, including Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst, state Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, and Bay County Commissioners. Kudos to the leaders of Bay County who contributed to making this project come to life.

Miracle League Field to be Complete by Tomorrow

As workers methodically and swiftly lay down the hexagonal rubber-pellet blocks the painting crews were preparing to paint the in-field of the new Miracle League Baseball Diamond at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach. The field is expected to be complete by the end of the day tomorrow.

The field has been under construction for a few months now with the asphalt paving having gone down about 30 days ago. Late last week crews began putting down the rubber blocks, one piece at a time. The entire field is comprised of 30,000 blocks covering 15,000 square feet. The pavers are made of recycled rubber from tires and other disposed rubber products. The garbage rubber is ground into small pellets, cleaned and compressed into a form and held together by an environmentally friendly bond.

Every ten feet, a row is glued down to prevent shifting, but all the others are free floating so as to ease repair or replacement over the years. “We guarantee our surfaces for 5 years, but we have some that are 10 year old that still look fine,” said Jose Rodriguez, Director of Sales and Business Development for Sofscape, the company that is installing the field. “In five years, if the paint begins to fade, you just repaint it and you have a new field.”

As of this post, they had the template forms down for painting the infield. When complete, it will look like a regular baseball diamond with the bases painted on. The entire surface will be flat so as to allow kids in wheelchairs to be able to roll around the bases. If the wind stays down like it was when I was up there, they’ll paint this morning.

As I was leaving, I was talking to Jeanie Quave, the Broker at Edgewater Beach Realty, and we were discussing all the great memories this field will be home to. Many kids will have an opportunity here that they did not have before, and the new field will be home to many great memories for these kids and their families for the rest of their lives. I think it is great the positive impact that this will have on the community, and I commend all those that were involved in making this happen.

On a side note, Jeanie was saying that they still need someone to donate a flag pole and flag, so if there is anyone that is willing and able to do so, please help.

Grills Gone Wild is Back, To Cook 1,000's LBS of Meat for Charity

The success of Grills Gone Wild 1 was so immense they decided to do it again, for a different charity this year.

The original Grills Gone Wild, meant to be a tongue in cheek stab at the Girls Gone Wild garbage our area was going through last year with Joe Francis, was a refreshing positive twist our area surely needed. The goal was to raise money for Aaron Nichols, son of Gary Nichols, the band director of Arnold High School. Aaron was injured and paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident. When insurance money ran out, the Nichols family still had a little more than $20,000 in improvements they needed to make to their home to accommodate their son. The event raised $24,000 and provided the much needed modifications to the house.

The original goal was to sell 500 tickets last year for $12 a piece, but the event “mushroomed” as Alan Graham put it and benefited from a turnout that was much greater than expected. “We ended up cooking ten 200 pound pigs and 180 Boston Butts and fed 2,500 people.”

There was such a demand for this again, that they actually sought out a charity to help this year so they could bring the party back to the beach. Benefiting this year is the new Miracle League baseball field currently being constructed at Frank Brown Park. The field is padded to prevent injury, the bases are painted on, and the dugouts will all be wheelchair accessible. Proceeds from Grills Gone Wild 2 will go towards building the fence for the field, which costs about $20,000.

The event is sponsored by Counts Real Estate and The Rotary Club. “All the meat has be to purchased up front,” Graham said, “we’re trying to sell the tickets up front, but what we don’t get sold, we’ll come up with the money to buy the meat.” If you’re a griller, you can still enter for the Boston Butts, the chicken and the rib category, but if you want to cook a pig, you’ll have to wait until next year as they’ve already been ordered.

“The pigs take about 22 hours to cook,” said Graham, “we cook ’em low and slow.” The best way to cook pork is at a low temperature for a long time, that way the meat just falls right apart. They will have the grills set up around the pavilion by the playground and pool at Frank Brown Park with tables set up inside where the basketball courts are and outside around the pavilion in the lawn. The party will start with the grills firing up early Friday afternoon March 13th and food will be served all afternoon Saturday March 14th.

Tickets can be purchased at any Counts Real Estate Office, by contacting any Rotary Club member or at the event. Tickets are being sold for $10 this year. If you want to grill the cost is $100 per grill.

You should come out and support this great cause and hang with the community. For more information, contact Alan Graham at 850 896 2648.