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Miami Palmetto High School junior Eitan Greenberg loves baseball. He’s no longer playing but he keeps his hand in the game by volunteering with the Miracle League of Miami-Dade.
“It’s for kids and adults with disabilities,” he says. “They get the opportunity to play baseball. There are three games on Saturday afternoons.”
He and the other volunteers teach the players how to play baseball.
“I work with them, I help them learn the game,” he says. “I have conversations with them.
They don’t have the opportunity to talk to others their age. They are like we are, but they express themselves in different ways.”
The volunteers help the players when they are up at bat, when they are in the field and in the dugout. Greenberg has made friends with some of the players and has developed a special bond with one player that he says he would have had if he hadn’t taken an active role in Miracle League.
He’s been volunteering for almost two years now. Someone talked to his dad about the organization and his dad suggested Greenberg give it a try.
“We went one day, and I fell in love almost immediately,” he says.
Greenberg says he participated in a special exhibition game at the University of Miami, and it was great.
“The kids loved it,” he says. “It was so cool.”
Greenberg works on recruiting volunteers, and he helps train the new people.
“It’s not hard, they usually learn after one game or so,” he says. “They love it. They realize how great it is and they keep coming back to the Miracle League. It’s fantastic.”
Greenberg played first base and center field for years on teams at the Howard Palmetto Baseball and Softball Association. He stopped in tenth grade to focus on academics.
Now he is an umpire for Howard Palmetto. He has been umpiring for three years and umpires kid pitch games, which are games where kids are pitching to kids.
“It’s serious,” he says. “I get to call balls and strikes and it’s very intense. The coaches get heated, the kids get heated. I love it.”
It’s not an easy job but he is happy that the kids and the coaches listen to him and thank him for doing the job.
“Umpires try their best,” he says. “Honestly their best isn’t always perfect. You can get pretty darn close to it and that’s how I try to be.”
At Palmetto, Greenberg is president of the History Bowl which is part of the Rho Kappa Honor Society (the Social Studies National Honor Society.)
He’s quite good at history and geography. He and several other Palmetto students qualified for the National History Bowl, and he also qualified for the International Geography Bee competition in Vienna in July.
As president of the club, he helps the club sponsor with scheduling and making sure there are enough people on the teams.
He’s also a member of the National Honor Society.
Greenberg is president of the BBYO chapter at the Dave and Mary Alper Jewish Community Center.
“We play basketball, we play football,” he says. “We do Jewish activities. It’s a good opportunity for us to interact with other Jewish teens.”
As president, he set up a schedule for the next year for the chapter, planned out week by week.
Since October 7, he and the students have been doing more things to embrace their culture.
Although it’s still early, he’s starting to consider colleges and building his list. He wants to major in something related to history or politics.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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