NYPD Baseball Donates Time to Autism Speaks

The New York City Police Department's Baseball Team will be donating their on-field teaching skills to help the fight against autism Saturday.

Team members will be running a baseball clinic for children ages six to 13 at the South Orangetown Little League fields in Orangeburg as a fundraiser for Autism Speaks. 

Patti Phelan, co-chairperson of the 2012 Greater Hudson Valley Walk Now for Autism Speaks, heard of a similar clinic in Chicago.

"My brother-in-law (Stephen Phelan) is a member of the team," Phelan said. "I approached him and he approached his teammates. They were really interested in helping."

Phelan said she went to the South Orangetown Little League first because of the quality of its facilities on Old Orangeburg Road.

"They volunteered the use of their fields, which is wonderful," Phelan said. "They have several fields. We will split the children up into groups by age and prior baseball experience. The idea is to have two baseball players from the police department per group. Depending on the numbers we have, we will splut up what they do in each group."

She said she expected 16 players from the NYPD baseball team to show up and the groups will be kept small enough so the players can get individual attention while also having enough kids to make it fun. There will also be an auction for the parents and blue Gatorade. Blue is the color of Autism Speaks.

The flyer and registration forms are attached to this report. Cost is $25 in advance, $30 the day of the fundraiser. The clinic is open to children with disabilities and those without. 

Phelan is also helping to organize Walk Now for Autism Speaks, which is scheduled for Oct. 13 at Rockland Community College. This is the fifth year of the walk to raise money for Autism Speaks, an organization that funds autism reasearch and helps to provide education about autism.