CENTRAL ARKANSAS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL BATTER UP

LITTLE ROCK — Students at Central Arkansas Christian High School in Maumelle are on a mission.

Mustang Missions, led by Stuart Cash, is a service organization that participates in several projects, including Miracle League Softball. Their mission is: "Serve Others 'For the Father.'"

Each year, volunteers gather at Junior Deputy ball park in Little Rock to serve as "buddies" for disabled children who gather there to play ball. Students from CAC are there to help them with hitting, fielding and throwing.

Tim Sitler, CAC director of public relations, said the school first became aware of Miracle League Softball through teachers and students who attend church with Robert "Riley" McClanahan and his parents, Robert and Michelle McClanahan. Riley, now 10, is disabled and receives services at Arkansas Easter Seals, which is involved with the Miracle League. Riley was the 2003 Child Representative for Arkansas Easter Seals. (For more information on Riley and his story, visit the Web site www.rileys warriors.org.)

"We want our students to be much more in tune with being servants," said Jeff Daniel, who has been teaching social sciences at the school for 24 years. "Mustang Missions is just part of that commitment. We hope they carry that sense of service with them after they leave here."

Daniel said his daughter, Bethany, who is a freshman at CAC, "just loves Miracle League Softball.

"Miracle League is for handicapped children," Daniel said. "It allows them to play ball. Most of the children in a game have one or two helpers. They can help by running, pushing wheelchairs or just by keeping them focused."

Daniel said the Miracle League is sponsored locally through Easter Seals and the field has been specially built for disabled children.

"We go out there twice a year," Daniel said, adding that various organizations and school groups volunteer throughout the year.

"It's an unbelievable program," Daniel said. "I like it because it puts kids that normally get to be out and around with kids who are different from them. It enriches and blesses all of them.

"I know what my kids get out of it," he said, adding that his son, Blake, a junior, has also participated in Miracle League Softball. "We all come away from it so blessed and enriched by it." Daniel's wife, Marla, works at the Pleasant Valley campus of Central Arkansas Christian School.

CAC Senior Jake Edwards has participated in Miracle Softball League for two years. "It's really fun to get out and go to the field in Little Rock," he said. "You get to know the kids before the play begins. You go up to bat with them and play, and really bond with them. We usually play all day. It's really fun.

"They seem to really appreciate what you do for them," Edwards said. "It's humbling. It's a good experience."

Edwards, who plans to attend Ouachita Baptist College, said he has been involved with other Mustang Mission projects, such as Mustang Christmas when the students go to the Southern Christian Home in Morrilton with gifts.

Ashli Humphries, also a senior, has been involved in Miracle League Softball for two years.

"It's a good learning experience," she said. "It makes you feel like you're really helping someone. They love it. They go up to bat, some in a wheelchair. And you get to run with them, too."

Humphries also participates in the Caps for Kids project, which allows students to pay $1 to wear a hat to school for a day, and with Mustang Christmas. "I was an elf last year," she said with a smile.

She hopes to attend the University of Central Arkansas to study psychology or pre-med.

Miracle League was formed nationally in 1998 by the Rockdale, Ga., Youth Baseball Association in order to further its mission of providing opportunities for all children to play baseball regardless of their abilities.