Community Corner

Bulldogs Draft Raises $700 for Special Needs Sports

The youth league raised money through an auction for team naming rights.

How much would Tinley Park Bulldogs baseball players pay to be their beloved White Sox?

Enough to help 70 local families of children with special needs have youth sporting opportunities.

On Wednesday night, the Bulldogs youth league presented a $700 check to the , which provides recreation and sports opportunities for people with special needs. SSSRA Superintendent Lisa Drzewiecki said the money will go toward youth sports programs, helping about 70 families in the process.

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"$700 will go a very long way with our families," Drzewiecki said. "Obviously, in today's economy, every family is struggling, not only in the general population but with families with special needs."

All the money came from the Bulldogs' February draft where the teams are divvied and the names are picked, said Mustang league President Matt Windle.

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The Bulldogs are divided into seven leagues, broken up by age group. Within the leagues, teams are named after MLB teams.

Normally, teams are assigned the names arbitrarily. This year, the Pinto league (ages 7-8) and the Mustang league (ages 9-10) turned the February draft into an auction where the teams got to bid on being named after the team of their choice.

The draft showed some serious South Side pride.

"We started out with the White Sox and the Cubs because we thought they would be the most popular. It turns out the Cubs weren't that popular," Windle said.

Drzewiecki said the money will likely go to programs like youth softball for Special Olympics training and T-ball, in keeping with the baseball roots of the money. The group plans to put a little bulldog in the SSSRA program catalog next to each of the programs the Bulldogs helped fund.

Because it's not only the Bulldogs who have teams they look up to.


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