By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
Hurricane Irene has come and gone but Manville is still facing the aftermath of the late August storm. Spring is here, but for many youth players, there may have not been a baseball season.
In the storm, the MYAL clubhouse on Dukes Parkway was underwater and lost most of their baseball sports equipment. On Wednesday night, March 14, members of the Knights of Columbus St. Jude Council presented a $500 donation to the MYAL for equipment.
Grand Knight Robert Newman said the group was glad to help out.
”They were able to get the football equipment out, but they were not able to get the baseball equipment,” he said. “Now that it is getting near baseball time, everyone realizes that they have to replace all the helmets, the bats and we just felt we had to do something for the kids.
”Most of us have had our kids in the MYAL growing up. We decided to give $500 to replace whatever they can. We wanted to do it now before the season starts, hoping we are making the community of Manville aware that there are still people suffering from the hurricane. MYAL still has equipment at the MYAL building that is still in need of repair,” he said.
Baseball coach Jay Sharbaugh, a member of MYAL and the Knights of Columbus, was thankful to be a part of both organizations.
”At our meeting when we determined how much damaged was done,” he said. “We recognized that some help could be used. We had depleted equipment, damaged equipment in our field house. I thought the Knights would be a good place to start. They (Knights) were more than eager to provide some funds to help out. That’s what it is all about helping the kids.”
The donation will be put to good use, according to MYAL President John Bentz.
”On behalf of everyone from the Manville Youth Athletic League we would just like to thank everyone from the Knights of Columbus for their generous donation to help us out,” he said. “From Hurricane Irene, our building took on a few feet of water and we did lose a lot of our equipment. Every little bit that we can get from the businesses in town that we usually have as our sponsors help us to have our baseball season, as well as our football season coming up in the fall.”
Currently there are six teams for ages 6-15 and the season starts in mid-April. Some of the baseball items were salvageable but the donation will help purchase needed equipment that was lost.

