Sturge Weber and Baseball

Well here we are, in the process of planning my son Jon and my trip around the country to visit every baseball park this summer. It's a huge undertaking that is so exciting and hits on my two passions. Baseball has been in my blood since I was 6 years old, my first time I went to Fenway Park. I will never forget standing near the third base dugout and my cousin trying to catch foul balls in batting practice and trying to get Red Sox players to sign autographs. It drove me to wanting to be a baseball player my entire youth.

Sturge Weber didn't become a passion until my beautiful granddaughter was diagnosed with this disease 6 months after she was born. Sturge Weber is a tough disease that attacks the brain. I would say the most difficult part of this for our family is dealing with the fact of the unknown. We never know what is going to happen with Lola, our granddaughter. To date, we have been lucky. She has had two seizures and will be on anti-seizure medicine for the rest of her life. We have been truly blessed so far as we are in contact with so many families that have been hit very hard by this disease. In the end it can cause learning disabilites to death. As I said, the hard part is we never know. You can find out more about Sturge Weber by going to:

http://sturgeweber.kennedykrieger.org/

My son Jon and I have been huge Red Sox fans since Jon was very young. Of course I have always been a huge fan. This year, as we venture out from Fenway Park to every ballpark in the country, we are looking for support. Today is the beginning of our journey. It is truly a baseball journey with a father and a son as the main characters and a beautiful soon to be 3 year old granddaughter as our motivating mission. Along the way Jon and I will both be updating this blog to inform people on what is new and where we are going. Currently we are trying to get Major League Baseball on board to help us with tickets. We are also going to be looking for national sponsors to help raise money. Hopefully, with MLB's help, we will be able to raise even more money with an information booth at each ballpark. Shortly I will be placing a link onto this blog to inform our readers how to help us raise money. One of the hardships of this disease is it is considered an orphan disease. Basically this means that the drug companies don't see a large profit in treating this disease so therefore there is no research dollars. Sad but true.

If you have any questions or would like to help us in our efforts, please feel free to contact me at mitch@mitchrealty.com. I hope to hear from you as Jon and I start our journey!

Sincerely,

Mitch Ribak