Bloomingdale Special Needs Children Benefit from Eagle Scout Project

"Everyone can be a life changer," said Owen Sarwatka.

That's the philosophy that led the Tampa Catholic High School sophomore  to embark on a project to team up players on his Tampa Catholic baseball team with special needs children for a day of baseball skills and camaraderie Jan. 15.

The Eagle Scout hopeful said he came up with the idea for his Eagle project seven months ago and approached his Tampa Catholic assistant coach, Paul Russo.

He wanted to team up with the 3-year-old Challenge Division at Bloomingdale Little League to teach baseball skills to special needs children.

To raise money for the project, he sold raffle tickets, collected money at school and had family members donate to the project in lieu of buying him Christmas gifts.

He also recruited 22 sponsors for the event at the Bloomingdale Little League, collecting a total of $1,800 for T-shirts for the players, water, snacks and lunch.

In all, about 50 TC baseball players and other volunteers buddied up with special needs children age 4 to 22 years old to teach them baseball fundamentals including hitting, fielding and throwing the ball.

"Baseball's a lot of fun and it's something everyone can do," Sarwatka said.

 Russo said he was happy to help his player out with his Eagle Scout project.

"We were really excited about it when Owen came to me seven months ago," said Russo, whose wife teaches special needs children. "It's just a great project and it's beneficial for the players to participate and share their skills with these kids. It just shows the kid of kids we have in our baseball program at Tampa Catholic. It's a family and they're there to support one another."

"It's been a great learning experience," said Sarwatka. "It's taught me a lot about myself and the need to give back to the community. It's taught me leadership and that everyone has a talent. Most of all, it's shown me that I can make a difference."

According to Christine Oliver, community relations chairwoman for the Bloomingdale Little League, the Challenge Division was started three years ago to give children of all abilities a chance to play ball.

"Last year there was 15 to 20 kids on a team and we had four Challenge teams," said Oliver. "Games are played every Saturday and the kids are matched up with an older player who works with them throughout the 14-week season."

Recent University of South Florida graduate Sam Speer was among those who volunteered to help Sarwatka with his Eagle project Saturday.

"Owen's my neighbor and he used to come to all my basketball games at Freedom High School," said Speer. "So I just had to be there for him when he needed me."

"I think this is great," said John Tremolak whose 6-year-old son, R.J., is in the Challenge Division. "Their (the TC players) attitude and enthusiasm for the game is incredible. This will be R.J.'s second year playing in the division, and last year he had a blast. "

Theresa Mastella's 7-year-old son, Anthony, has played in the Challenge Division since it started.  She said she was impressed with the event Sarwatka was able to put together for the kids.

"Today is amazing," she said. "I hope we always have an Eagle candidate who's willing to do this. Anthony was so excited. It's all he's talked about all week. At 5:30 this morning he popped out of bed and said, 'Baseball.' He couldn't wait to get here. All of this attention and social interaction is so good for the kids."

Mastella said she was impressed with the way the young volunteers handled the special needs children.

"They are showing a great deal of character and patience working with these special needs children," she said.

Kellie Morris and Bobby Donofrio of Elite Tax Advisers heard about the program on the Fox 13 news and decided to come bearing doughnuts for all the participants.

"We live in this community and thought it was really neat that a high school student was planning to help this way," said Donofrio.

Ivan Garcia, a Tampa Catholic baseball player, said he came out to support his fellow player's Eagle project.

"It's a good experience working with the kids," he said. "Some are really good players, too. We should have them on our team."

Fellow player Kyle Barber agreed.

"It's been wonderful working with these kids," he said.