SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — A few years ago, Kevin Negaard played catch for 365 straight days. All to raise money for the Miracle League here in Sioux City. This year, he came up with a new idea. To play catch for 24 straight hours.
Kevin Negaard started playing catch at 2:00 p.m. on Monday and will continue for the next 24 hours, all to raise money for the Miracle League in Sioux City.
“We’re in a ten-year celebration of the Miracle League of Sioux City, on a million-dollar campaign. We thought it would be a fun event we could do that gets people out to the park, and also generates a little revenue. It’s a fundraiser, but a really fun fundraiser,” Negaard said.
The goal over the next 24 hours is to raise $50k, all to help the Miracle League field here at Riverside Park in Sioux City.
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Negaard continued with, “We’re ten years old. Our playground surface and our baseball field surface are going to need to be replaced. It’s about a $300k project.”
The idea is to switch out playing catch with a person or group every 15 minutes.
Negaard hopes to play catch with about 500 different people or groups in the 24 hours.
“Nobody walks away from playing catch and goes, ‘that was a terrible experience’. I’m never going to do that again. It brings back childhood memories, maybe with our parents, maybe in our backyard with our neighbor kids. It’s something that brings people together. I’m anxious to meet new people and see old friends.”
Helping Negaard on his 24-hour journey is former major league player and two-time World Series champion, Scott Spiezio, whom Kevin met earlier this summer at a Miracle League game in Cooperstown, New York.
“Scott came at the last minute, and he was unbelievable with our kids and their parents. We’re just like man, that’s a guy we have to have around,” Negaard said.
Scott Spiezio said, “That’s what got me back. The kids, you know, and getting to bond with them for three days in New York, in the birthplace of baseball. And then to come back and see them again, and they remember you. I broke out my patented red soul patch again, which they like a lot.”
Along with raising money, Negaard hopes that this experience will make more people aware of the Miracle League field in Sioux City.
“I sometimes think we’re the best-kept secret in Sioux City because if you don’t have a young person in your family who’s going to come out and use the playground, or they’re not involved in sports, you may not get out here. And yet, you get out here and you see all the interaction and all the integration of different abilities and disabilities and different socio-economic and color and background. It’s kind of a melting pot. It’s really, really important to us to continue to share the message of the miracle league to people who don’t know it,” Negaard finished with.
Monday evening, Travis went live at the Miracle League field to talk with Negaard about the event. You can find that article here.
