Hickory – Six local Rotary Clubs, with the generous support of the Hickory Crawdads and their parent club, the Texas Rangers, are offering a Dave Clark Disability Dream & Do (D3Day) Baseball Camp to children and young adults with varying disabilities along with their families and caregivers on Saturday, August 28th at LP Frans Stadium. The camp will run approximately from 10am-12pm.
The camp is a professional style baseball camp and will be staffed by numerous volunteers from the Crawdads, the Rotary Clubs, and the baseball teams from Lenoir-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College.
The camp is free to participants. Pre-registration is required at www.D3Day.com. Interested families should select “events” on the website; then click on the Crawdads logo. A tab for participant registration is on the left-hand menu. All participants will receive a free t-shirt and cap, and lunch will be provided. Volunteers may also pre-register by selecting the volunteer registration tab on the same menu.
“The Crawdads organization is about making life-long memories and we can’t wait to be a part of the Disability Dream and Do Camp and help do just that for the participants and their families,” Crawdads General Manager Douglas Locascio said.
The Rotary project has been titled “The 100 Years of Rotary Disability Camp” to celebrate 100 years of Rotary service to local communities. According to Kelly Farr, president of the Rotary Club of Hickory, it is a demonstration of how Rotary does good in the world.
“Rotary is a huge international organization, and our local clubs support a number of worldwide projects but we especially value service to the local communities,” Farr said. “This project allows six clubs to join hands and offer something very special to the often underserved and forgotten population of wonderful disabled children.”
D3Day sports camps were created by Dave Clark, the only pitcher in professional baseball history to pitch on crutches, and Doug Cornfield, a medal winning runner at Georgia, who himself has a son born without arms. The Crawdads’ camp will also feature Emmy award-winning ESPN analyst Dave Stevens who was born without legs but played college football and hockey as well as professional baseball.
The Dave Clark camps allow children with any disability to interact with college and professional athletes in various drills and compete in sports with no limitations.
There will be various stations to learn baseball skills and a “high five game.” The event will conclude with an award ceremony for participants.
Check-in for the camp will begin at 9:45am and will wrap up with lunch at noon.
