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STLtoday - News - St. Louis City / County
At first you can't tell that this camp is any different from any other summer baseball camp for kids.
But look closer, and you'll see coaches and children signing back and forth. You'll see hearing aids tucked behind ears and beneath baseball caps. Wires from cochlear implants bounce up and down as players run bases and hustle to catch grounders.
This is the 17th year of the Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball Camp for the Hearing Impaired, which started Monday and runs through Friday at the baseball fields behind St. Peters City Hall.
As Kathy Duncan of Wentzville watched her son Kevin, 13, run drills Monday morning, she said, "He loves it. He has a blast here." Kevin is deaf in one ear and wears a hearing aid in the other. This is Kevin's fourth year at camp, and he even woke up at 5 a.m. just to make sure he'd be ready.
Duncan smiles as a winded Kevin runs in from the field to say hello. "I want to get a lot of trophies and stuff," Kevin says. Spoken like a true hustler.
The camp, open to children 7 to 14, is the brainchild of civic activist Ed Watkins, who wanted to help his pastor's young son, who is deaf, find a place to play baseball. The camp is named for Bush, the KSDK-TV news anchor, who did a feature story on the first camp. After that, Bush got his station to invest in captioning and has encouraged others to volunteer for the camp.
The camp has helped teach baseball to more than 1,000 children, and about 70 are attending this year. A bevy of volunteers, many who attended the camp when they were younger, help make sure things run smoothly.
Johnny Weggenmann, 17, of Eureka, started baseball camp when he was 6 and has volunteered since he was 15. His mom, Brenda, and older sister Jaclyn also volunteer, helping the youngsters who use mostly sign language to communicate.
As his sister interprets, Johnny says, "I want to continue to make sure the camp stays open. It's great for deaf kids to be more sociable with each other. If the kids go to a public school, there's usually not a lot of other deaf kids."
Johnny attends the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton but still stays in touch with his friends from baseball camp throughout the year.
This is Travis Swindle's first year at camp. He's 10 and lives in O'Fallon, and his mom, Christy Swindle, and grandmother Carolhen Schaw turned out Monday morning to watch.
"He's never been able to play baseball, and he's so excited about it," said Schaw, adding that his cousins play on teams and Travis does not. "When his cousins found out there were going to be baseball players here, they said, 'No way.'"
Indeed, baseball greats like Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial and Ozzie Smith have made appearances at the camp to coach and to sign autographs.
Ashley Weihs, 21, has several autographed baseballs from her years at camp. She started as a camper at age 8 and has volunteered for several years. She and her mom, Diane, who also volunteers, drive here from their home in southwest Iowa.
Weihs, who has a cochlear implant and also reads lips, was the only deaf student in her high school, and she loved the opportunity to socialize with other deaf children at baseball camp. In fact, friends she first met at camp are now among her college friends at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
"When this week is finished," Weihs said, "I start thinking about next year."
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At first you can't tell that this camp is any different from any other summer baseball camp for kids.
But look closer, and you'll see coaches and children signing back and forth. You'll see hearing aids tucked behind ears and beneath baseball caps. Wires from cochlear implants bounce up and down as players run bases and hustle to catch grounders.
This is the 17th year of the Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball Camp for the Hearing Impaired, which started Monday and runs through Friday at the baseball fields behind St. Peters City Hall.
As Kathy Duncan of Wentzville watched her son Kevin, 13, run drills Monday morning, she said, "He loves it. He has a blast here." Kevin is deaf in one ear and wears a hearing aid in the other. This is Kevin's fourth year at camp, and he even woke up at 5 a.m. just to make sure he'd be ready.
Duncan smiles as a winded Kevin runs in from the field to say hello. "I want to get a lot of trophies and stuff," Kevin says. Spoken like a true hustler.
The camp, open to children 7 to 14, is the brainchild of civic activist Ed Watkins, who wanted to help his pastor's young son, who is deaf, find a place to play baseball. The camp is named for Bush, the KSDK-TV news anchor, who did a feature story on the first camp. After that, Bush got his station to invest in captioning and has encouraged others to volunteer for the camp.
The camp has helped teach baseball to more than 1,000 children, and about 70 are attending this year. A bevy of volunteers, many who attended the camp when they were younger, help make sure things run smoothly.
Johnny Weggenmann, 17, of Eureka, started baseball camp when he was 6 and has volunteered since he was 15. His mom, Brenda, and older sister Jaclyn also volunteer, helping the youngsters who use mostly sign language to communicate.
As his sister interprets, Johnny says, "I want to continue to make sure the camp stays open. It's great for deaf kids to be more sociable with each other. If the kids go to a public school, there's usually not a lot of other deaf kids."
Johnny attends the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton but still stays in touch with his friends from baseball camp throughout the year.
This is Travis Swindle's first year at camp. He's 10 and lives in O'Fallon, and his mom, Christy Swindle, and grandmother Carolhen Schaw turned out Monday morning to watch.
"He's never been able to play baseball, and he's so excited about it," said Schaw, adding that his cousins play on teams and Travis does not. "When his cousins found out there were going to be baseball players here, they said, 'No way.'"
Indeed, baseball greats like Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial and Ozzie Smith have made appearances at the camp to coach and to sign autographs.
Ashley Weihs, 21, has several autographed baseballs from her years at camp. She started as a camper at age 8 and has volunteered for several years. She and her mom, Diane, who also volunteers, drive here from their home in southwest Iowa.
Weihs, who has a cochlear implant and also reads lips, was the only deaf student in her high school, and she loved the opportunity to socialize with other deaf children at baseball camp. In fact, friends she first met at camp are now among her college friends at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
"When this week is finished," Weihs said, "I start thinking about next year."
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