Community Corner

Miracle League Founder Named Citizen of the Year

Cranberry Township Community Chest and Chamber of Commerce select Mike Sherry as their 2011 honoree.

If you ask Mike Sherry about successfully founding and heading the Miracle League of Southwestern Pennsylvania, he’ll say he didn’t do much.

“I just provided kids with a chance to play baseball,” he said.

Make that thousands of kids who otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to play ball. In 2007, Sherry, who is the parent of a daughter with autism, founded the Miracle League, which gives children and adults with special needs opportunities to play organized baseball.

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At Wednesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, the Cranberry Township Community Chest and The Chamber of Commerce, Inc. named Sherry its 2011 Citizen of the Year. Sherry said he was caught off guard by the honor.

“I had no idea,” he said. “I am obviously thrilled and honored they would select me.”

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Sherry and his wife, Chris, also were behind a high-energy campaign to raise funds for the Miracle League's playing field at Graham Park. The Pittsburgh Pirates Charities got on board, and the Pirates Charities Miracle League Field – which is paved with a rubber surface that enables athletes with walkers and wheelchairs to move around the bases safely -- opened in May 2009.

Today, Sherry said, 263 players and more than 450 volunteers are registered for the league’s upcoming third season.

“The first year we had about 130 players, and we were going to be happy if we got enough for a team,” he said. “Three years later, we’ve almost doubled that number. I think that shows a need in Western Pennsylvania. Miracle League baseballs fields are almost a necessity in every community.”

Sherry said the thousands of people who have volunteered with the league over the years deserve to share the honor with him.

“The good Lord gave me the tools to do this,” he said. “One of those tools in the box was a wonderful community called Cranberry.”

While Sherry said he has seen other Miracle Leagues around the country struggle due to a lack of volunteers, the Miracle League of Southwestern Pennsylvania has continued to grow each year.

Sherry said the volunteers include coaches, managers, umpires, announcers, and more. Each player also is paired with a “buddy” who helps him or her play ball. Many of the buddies are teenagers, which Sherry said fills him with pride.

“They come out and tear down the stereotypes and barriers that often are between special-needs kids and their peers,” he said.

Sherry said the league attracts players from all over Western Pittsburgh and parts of West Virginia.

In the future, he said, players who travel long distances may have a league of their own to call home. Sherry is helping to form Miracle Leagues in Upper St. Clair, Murrysville, and Wheeling, W. Va.

Sherry said former Pittsburgh Pirate Sean Casey is in Upper St. Clair through his Casey’s Clubhouse foundation. The effort to build a Miracle Field in Murrysville is being led by the Murrysville-Export Rotary Club, and the Easter Seals West Virginia organization is behind efforts for a Miracle Field in Wheeling.

Sherry said he is offering guidance and advice to those organizations as needed.

As the Miracle League of Southwestern Pennsylvania continues to flourish, Sherry said he hopes his daughter Jordan, now 7, one day will realize the impact she had on its creation.

“I look forward to the day she can understand the effect she has had on others,” he said. “She was our inspiration to move forward. Hopefully she’ll understand how her special needs have changed the lives of thousands.”

The Chamber and the Community Chest also named  in Cranberry  the 2011 Business of the Year. The organization will present the awards to Sherry and UPMC at the Four Pillar Luncheon hosted by the Chamber, the Community Chest and the Cranberry Alliance on July 7.

An endowment for UPMC and Sherry also will be established with the Cranberry Legacy Endowment. This will be highlighted in the June issue of the Cranberry Township Community Chest’s annual report.


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