Hall of Famer Swings by Pathfinder Village
By: Stephen Bond
Updated: September 3, 2012
Play ball! Today residents of Pathfinder Village got the chance to lace up shoes and step on the baseball diamond with a hall of famer. This was the tenth year Pathfinder residents got the chance to interact with a baseball legend.
CEO of Pathfinder Village Paul Landers says, "It's fabulous to have a Hall of Famer her at Pathfinder and to watch our residents interact with him and share their life with him. It's quite an honor to be partners with the Hall of Fame and to host these gentlemen year after year."
Pathfinder village is a residential community for children and adults with Down syndrome. And today the 1991 inductees experienced more than just sharing the baseball field with them.
Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins says, "Well coming here to Pathfinder is something new, a new experience seeing that all these children have their own apartment, pretty self-sufficient. Playing whiffle ball with them was quite an experience. But this is something new and I didn't think this village was here or this close to Cooperstown."
Traditionally the Baseball Hall of Fame's Senior Open takes place right after Labor Day and all the proceeds will go to benefit Pathfinder Village.
Landers added, "Their our ambassador, they make the tournament that much more special and again it introduces Pathfinder to the baseball community, so we feel they go back to their communities and talk about Pathfinder and share this wonderful mission."
Jenkins played nineteen seasons in the bigs, winning nearly three hundred games. But the only Canadian born hall of famer says the competition was tough today.
He added, "Ah pretty exciting but I don't want to come back here and play sports. I got hit around pretty good, These youngsters it seems like every ball they hit was a line drive to the outfield, I only had a couple of ground balls, but we had a lot of fun playing so it was pretty interesting."
