Page 28 - Giving Back Guide - 2021

GIVING BACK
MS GULF COAST BUDDY SPORTS
story by Victoria Snyder photos courtesy of MS Gulf Coast Buddy Sports
Since 2010, MS Gulf Coast Buddy Sports (also known as MGCBS or Buddy Sports) has helped youths and adults
with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other special needs enjoy sports on the Gulf Coast.
Mike Crawford and his wife, Representative Carolyn Crawford, were inspired by their daughter, Emily. After playing in the local t-ball league, she was unable to play in more competitive leagues. Thus, this nonprofit was born.
Buddy Sports’ first program was Buddy Ball Baseball, initially created so that Emily and her friends could continue playing the sport they loved. Since its founding, children, young adults, and adults with special needs can non-competitively play baseball with plastic bats and soft foam balls. After nine years of playing in Long Beach, Buddy Ball is now played at the Gulfport Sportsplex.
Since then, MGCBS has grown to offer kickball, near-shore charter boat fishing, pond fishing, walking, dance class, painting, horseback riding, and a variety of other recreational activities.
Fishing with Buddies is one of its newer events. Each individual with special needs has a family member or volunteer buddy that will help them fish.
Thanks to grants and extraordinary sponsors, MGCBS is able to offer all of these sports and opportunities at no cost to participants or their families.
In the future, Buddy Sports would love to be able to build a sports and leisure complex designed specifically for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other special needs.
Until that dream can become a reality, the nonprofit is putting its all into making the lives of children
and adults with special needs more active and, most importantly, more fun.
MS Gulf Coast Buddy Sports
www.msgulfcoastbuddysports.org
28 | December 2021
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