Buddy Ball offers community for all

A nonprofit on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is providing equal opportunities to individuals with special needs at no cost.

It started in 2010 with 20 participants, but has blossomed into a community of over 350 families.

Sami Jordan with the Roy Howard Community Journalism Center has more.

“Special needs is not just one little, small population, it touches everybody.”  Mike Crawford founded Mississippi Gulf Coast Buddy Sports for his daughter to be able to stay involved.

“My daughter, Emily has special needs. She has a Chromosome abnormality. Emily couldn’t play competitive sports like her brother and sister were doing.”

Emily made many friends throughout the years. Crawford said they can’t go anywhere in public without her being stopped by someone she knows. “Her phone just has lists of people that she knows, she knows more people than I know. She’s a social critter. She’s— That’s a sign of her friends; she loves buddy sports.”

For 21-year-old Stone County resident, Marimae Davis, Buddy Sports has provided her a community.

Her grandmother, Kathy Keen, said they had a hard time finding local activities, but Davis’s mother, Gwen, signed her up for Buddy Sports. “They can get out, and they can get exercise, and they can meet other special needs.”

Friendships for Davis have blossomed through sports and leisure the program has provided. “She’s able to go out with some of her friends now and go out to just eat and get out of the house.”

“All Kinds of different friends.”

Buddy Sports has offered baseball, kickball, fishing, horseback riding, painting and more.

Over 350 volunteers come together annually to make the events happen.
Keen encourages other families to give the program a try.

“They’re just out there to have fun, and we don’t keep score. Everybody wins.”