Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge reception a hit with players and coaches

Players and coaches representing the 40 teams participating in the 11th annual Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge gathered for a reception at Edison High School on Sunday night.

The three-day event, featuring more than 600 players, will be held April 20 through April 22 at North Brunswick’s Community Park.

Admission is free to all 20 games (complete schedule below). A ceremonial first pitch — thrown by a special needs child or someone who works with special needs children — will take place before each contest.

The event, sponsored by the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation, an Edison-based nonprofit whose mission is to help those in need, is designed to heighten awareness about autism.

Mike Garlatti, a former Highland Park star and Rutgers University assistant coach who is now a scout with the Colorado Rockies, founded the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge.

It began as a grassroots effort more than a decade ago with Garlatti, who has a son on the autism spectrum, and a couple of volunteers walking up to spectators at games to deliver pamphlets containing information about the nation’s fastest growing developmental disorder.

Volunteers will continue to educate spectators, setting up a table between Community Park’s adjacent fields that will display information about autism, but the event has grown exponentially since its inception.

Autism is a lifelong neurological disorder that impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It's broad spectrum of characteristics range from severe detached and isolated behavior to extreme verbal and hypersensitive behavior.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the identified prevalence of autism spectrum disorders nationally has increased from 1 in 110 to 1 in 68 since Garlatti began the baseball challenge event a decade ago. One in 45 children in New Jersey – 62 percent of whom are boys – are on the autism spectrum.

Representatives from this year’s participating teams – including 14 from the Greater Middlesex Conference and six from the Courier News area – gathered for Sunday night’s reception, which featured plenty of food and several inspiring speakers, including Stanley Richards, a student with autism from Millburn, and Somerville three-sport athlete Andrew Diodato, a junior who uses the platform of sports as a catalyst for social inclusion.

Diodato, along with a life skills teacher at his high school, launched a social skills program called Peer 2 Peer.

Beth Urbanski, a special education teacher at Branchburg Middle School, spoke about the impact others can make on those with special needs. Urbanski’s son, Kyle, who graduated last year from Voorhees, a newcomer to the Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge, currently plays baseball at Emerson College.

A PowerPoint presentation, detailing the event’s mission, helped the players and coaches fully understand their role in the challenge and the impact their participation can make on the lives of others.

The baseball challenge has been designed to heighten awareness about autism, but now also serves as a fundraiser for the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation. Tax-deductible donations will be accepted at the gate for the nonprofit.

Participating teams traditionally have put their own spin on the fundraising component. For the third straight year, Sayreville players collected donations at home varsity basketball games, and Rahway players sold specially designed autism awareness bands.

Each of the last four years, the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation has presented a special award to the top fundraising program, an honor which most recently went to St. Joseph. This year, Bishop Ahr and Sayreville are among the teams who turned in phenomenal fundraising efforts.

For the third consecutive year, Garlatti announced that a scholarship program through the foundation is available to current seniors participating in the challenge. To be eligible, students must be pursuing a postsecondary education and submit an essay of 250 to 500 words describing how participating in the challenge inspired them to become involved with individuals with special needs.

Past scholarship award recipients from the Greater Middlesex Conference include Zach Marzano of J.P. Stevens, Justin Hernandez of Edison, Nick Loffredo of St. Joseph and Nick DiMaggio of Middlesex.

The inaugural challenge featured eight teams, all from Middlesex County. This year’s event includes teams from as far north as Bergen County and as far south as Atlantic County.

Unlike the event’s inception, when players wore specially designed Autism Awareness T-shirts only during pregame, players for the fourth straight year will wear more elaborate Autism Awareness jerseys with numbers on the back for the entire game.

Players participating in the challenge continued the tradition on Sunday night of exchanging "autographed" colored puzzle pieces. The players asked relatives, friends, teachers and classmates to sign the puzzle pieces in exchange for a donation to The Teamwork Unlimited Foundation. Small change was as acceptable as dollar bills.

The colored puzzle pieces are symbolic of autism. Those diagnosed with the disorder – puzzling for it has no known cause – are as varied as the colors of a rainbow, reflecting the multi-colored puzzle piece symbol that has universally been adopted to promote autism awareness.

All challenge participants are encouraged to wear their "Autism Awareness" jerseys to school in the days leading up to the event to stimulate conversation among classmates.

Players and coaches learned on Sunday night the various ways the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation has assisted others.

In addition to partnering with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation to provide medical alert bracelets to children with autism and pediatric patients with chronic illness who receive outstanding care from Children’s Specialized Hospital, which annually serves more than 34,000 children statewide, the Teamwork Unlimited Foundation has:

Donated to The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis (the contribution was in honor of Mike Nichols, the former Monroe High School ice hockey star who delivered the keynote address at last year’s Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge reception).

Donated to Camp Fatima, a New Jersey nonprofit providing free weeklong sleepover camp experiences for children and adults with disabilities.

Donated to former Woodbridge High School baseball player Ben Lepisto – now a junior – who two years ago fought a winning battle with a large malignant brain tumor.

Provided playground benches for the Sayreville-based Center for Lifelong Learning, which provides academic programs for students age 3 to 21 with autism and multiple disabilities.

Contributed to the Wounded Warrior Project, a charitable veterans service organization that provides a variety of programs, services and events for wounded military veterans.

Donated to Special Olympics New Jersey, whose mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type events for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Enabled Autism Awareness Baseball Challenge players and coaches to teach the game through Buddy Ball of Edison, a nonprofit organization that offers children with special needs an opportunity to play sports in a fun and safe environment.

Sponsored year-end parties for unified sports teams in Somerville and sponsored T-shirts for Somerville Middle School’s “Be a Buddy” program.

Donated to the family of Shane O’Donnell, the son of Middlesex athletics director Mike O’Donnell who is fighting a winning battle against high-risk neuroblastoma.

Donated to The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.

2018 AUTISM AWARENESS BASEBALL CHALLENGE SCHEDULE

(All games at North Brunswick's Community Park)

April 20

A.L. Johnson vs. J.P. Stevens, 4 p.m.

Henry Hudson vs. EB Tech, 4 p.m.

Bernards vs. North Brunswick, 7 p.m.

St. Peter’s Prep vs. St. Joseph (Metuchen), 7 p.m.

April 21

Millburn vs. South Plainfield, 10 a.m.

Scotch Plains vs. Sayreville, 10 a.m.

Barnegat vs. Steinert, 1 p.m.

Governor Livingston vs. Edison, 1 p.m.

Delbarton vs. Red Bank Catholic, 4 p.m.

South River vs. Weehawken, 4 p.m.

Somerville vs. Elizabeth, 7 p.m.

Millville vs. Jackson, 7 p.m.

April 22

Spotswood vs. Robbinsville, 10 a.m.

South Amboy vs. Rahway, 10 a.m.

St Joseph (Montvale) vs. Holy Spirit, 1 p.m.

Voorhees vs. Middlesex, 1 p.m.

Pope John vs. Christian Brothers Academy, 4 p.m.

Hudson Catholic vs. Metuchen, 4 p.m.

St. John Vianney vs. Bishop Ahr, 7 p.m.

Hillsborough vs. Old Bridge, 7 p.m.