On a warm summer day, five-year-old Patrick Cady was sitting on the edge of his seat alongside the North Reading (Mass.) Little League (NRLL) baseball diamond, enchanted by the exciting action on the field while only looking away to offer a warm smile to his nearby grandfather, Ed.
From their elevated vantage point in the clubhouse behind the chain-link backstop, with a Massachusetts District 13 Championship banner draped across the adjacent wall, the grandfather and grandson watched the NRLL pitcher go into his windup, then deliver a fastball to the right-handed batter from nearby Wakefield (Mass.) Little League as it makes contact with the bat.
Sporting a white Jimmy Fund hat, the centerfielder tracks the ball all the way to the wall to make the catch and fire a perfect throw to the plate. Patrick giggles at the sound of the ball slamming into the catcher’s mitt, and whether he and Cady realized it in the moment, the scene perfectly captures the essence of the Massachusetts District 13 Jimmy Fund Little League program.
Alongside NRLL board members like Joe Wells, Cady, and his grandson stepped up to the plate in July 2024, welcoming local families to the complex for 24 games as part of a two-day event in support of the Jimmy Fund, a charity based in Boston, Massachusetts, that offers more than 5,000 Little League Baseball and Softball players throughout New England the chance to continue playing after their regular season ends while raising funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since its inception in 1986, the Jimmy Fund Little League program has raised more than $6 million for the institute’s life-saving cancer research and patient care.
As Jimmy Fund program director for NRLL, Wells cannot help but think about baseball when he thinks of the Jimmy Fund given its lasting relationship with the Boston Red Sox.
“We all are here to advance cancer research, for adults, too, but especially for youth with the genesis of the Jimmy Fund being Jimmy — a kid,” said Wells. “I think this program just works, especially during the summer. Sure, everyone is out here to get a few more reps. But you take it a step further, and every kid and every coach also know we are out here for this great cause.”
For Wells and Cady, the story of the Jimmy Fund Little League program cannot be fully told without a mention of the Berardi family. John Berardi is the Jimmy Fund Little League Program Director, as well…
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