Palmetto High School junior Maxwell Landy has a passion for baseball and helping disabled children play the game. He’s worked with the Miracle League of Miami since it was founded in 2012. At the time he was in seventh grade.
“I’m the only person who is on the board who is in high school,” Landy says. “The overall goal is to create a field for the kids.”
Landy says fundraising for the field should be completed by the end of the year.
Miami-Dade County has been involved in the project as well. They have designated a field at Tamiami Park for the Miracle League to use.
“It will cost $1.5 million to rubberize the field and create the track for the kids to play,” he says. “So kids with handicaps and physical disabilities can get around faster, better than on a clay field. Kids in wheelchairs or with walkers.”
Even as they wait for the field, the Miracle League organized games for the disabled children.
“They have a couple games each year,” he says.
They progressed enough that there’s now a baseball league for the handicapped children. Landy says the league has 36 players. There are also baseball buddies for each player. The baseball buddies push the children around the field and help them play.
“There are many volunteers,” he says.
In addition, there are Miracle League games at various schools around the county, including Palmetto, Ransom Everglades, Columbus, Krop as well as Florida International University.
At those games, Landy says instead of the assigned buddies they have their baseball teams and softball teams help with the assigned work.
“As the project finishes, we will continue to fundraise to help kids with disabilities,” he says. “This is just one field. Hopefully in the future there will be many.”
Although he loves baseball, at Palmetto he’s captain of the lacrosse team. He began playing lacrosse in sixth grade after being cut from the Ransom baseball team.
“I was distraught that I didn’t make the team and wasn’t sure what to do with myself and said I’ll try lacrosse and grew to love the sport,” he says.
He’s also involved with the Health Information Project. He speaks to students twice a month about health including mental health, reproductive health, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
“The students have responded well,” he says. “It’s important to teach the freshman class about things they may experience in their lives.”
He’s in the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, is the public relations director for the Advanced Placement Capstone Program. He’s on the newspaper staff as video editor for the online edition.
“It’s really boosted the popularity of the online newspaper,” he says. “We cover everything ranging from coverage of homecoming to the volleyball games.”
Landy is also on the Teen Court for Miami-Dade, an alternative sanctioning program for first time young offenders.
“They allow their peers to determine sentencing instead of the juvenile justice system,” he says. “We do a mock trial for their sentencing.”
Landy works on the prosecution and has to make speeches.
“It’s meaningful to see how the jury reacts,” he says. “And how the offender reacts to the crime he has committed.”
Often the sentence is community service and an apology essay. After that the guilty teens are assigned to jury duty.
“It definitely helps because they realize they can’t commit another crime,” he says. “They get to see the crimes these other kids commit and learn from their mistakes.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
