| Annual Report |

ANNUAL REPORT 2008

Sandie E Sparks-Olivar - Executive Director / President / CEO / Co-Founder

This past year, the Miracle League of El Paso finally realized the number one goal of obtaining a specially designed field for our players. In April, 2008, the new Junior League "Field of Miracles" was opened. The dugouts and field surface were constructed as well as a digital scoreboard donated by GECU. Construction of the field and dugouts took about four months.

With the distinction of being the largest Challenger division of Little League International in the Southwest, we found we were the only Challenger division adhering to the rules in the handbook sent from the main office. Implementing challenger baseball into the league was exactly how the players wanted to play ball. We still have more fine tuning to do with the division but believe it is the desired of the two we offer. Our non competitive division grew and we found playing on Sunday afternoons to work for everyone's schedule.

With our partner, the Junior League of El Paso we made great strides in developing a volunteer base to use for Angels in the Outfield for our players. We need to work more on developing for the next seasons and develop a deeper partnership with Burges High School Student Body and surrounding schools.

Fundraising for the field progressed to a point where the Junior League was able to take bids for the construction of the Field of Miracles in December of 2007. The construction of the field went as scheduled, the contractor, Site Solutions committed to the beginning of April, 2008.

The building that houses the concession stand, restrooms, private family restrooms, storage and offices was completed at the end of May, 2008. Our continued goal for 2009 will be to increase player and volunteer participation. There are still program costs to cover and we will be seeking sponsorships for teams and players. Need to free up time to dedicate to marketing our program throughout the Southwest. We want to develop more players from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, as well as, keep working at those other children who still do not know about our program here in El Paso and in the surrounding communities.

We still are looking for ways to get people involved who want to stay for the long haul. We experimented with asking player families to volunteer their time to help with program fundraising and found that was not working this past year. We will be exploring new ways to provide for the program and ask the patience of all those involved. We still need volunteers dedicated to becoming "buddies" or "Angels in the Outfield" to all our players. We will continue to look for these volunteers in the youth of our community.

Our challenges are funding the program and continued support for the on going construction at the field complex. The League wants to expand the program to include persons over 25 years old, visually impaired and hearing impaired. We will pursue these new initiatives and have begun partnerships with other entities to include the above listed persons.

The National Miracle League Association continues to use our League as an example in the rest of the country. We are the largest Miracle League in the nation as it stands today. Most leagues are busy fundraising to build their fields and have not implemented their program. We are proud to say we began the program first to determine the interest before constructing the field. We are also the first international league, as we have players from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Our field concession stand has been busy since school began in the surrounding area. We sell items tailored for student and player consumption. Our only hurdle is acquiring volunteers to help during the high school lunch hours during the week and on Saturdays when the park is full of other sports activities. With this addition to our income, we should be able to give up our duties with the UTEP concessions for the next football season.

Sales And Marketing

Miracle League of El Paso provides the opportunity for any person ages 3 and up with any mental and/or physical disability to play baseball. There are two divisions of Miracle League baseball, non competitive and Challenger (competitive). No player is turned away regardless of their ability to play or pay the registration fee.

The non competitive division plays two innings of baseball. Every player bats, runs the bases and makes a run. Last batter up makes the home run to bring in the rest of the players. There is no practice for this division, though there is warm up thirty minutes before each game.

The Challenger (competitive) division plays three innings of baseball using the Little League tee ball rules. Strikes are counted, outs are made and the number of runs declares the winning team. Bases are cleared after three outs. The team does bat through their roster. Practice with the team develops hand-eye coordination as well as improving their skills. Practice is optional, some teams do schedule outside practice for the benefit of the team.

The players receive a uniform, award and supplemental insurance for their registration fee. Players are invited to participate in other events throughout the year. After each season, award ceremonies are held where the trophies are given to players and volunteers in the league. Players are invited to numerous celebrations throughout the year, including the east side Fourth of July parade with a barbeque following in the park. There are award celebrations, after receiving season trophies, scheduled by the coaches. This year, due to low volunteer participation of parents and family members, the holiday celebration was suspended.

Management Discussion and Analysis

The Miracle League of El Paso has experienced tremendous growth in the three years of existence. Six teams and 60 players began league play in March, 2005. In the fall season of 2005, the league had 10 teams and 175 registered players. We started the spring season of 2006 with 14 teams and almost 300 registered players but found the fall season to have participation fall off somewhat, ending the year with 200 players and 11 teams. Then in the spring of 2007, we had only four Challenger teams and six non competitive teams. In the fall, the league make up changed again with several non competitive teams moving to Challenger. The 2007 fall season, ended with eight Challenger teams and four non competitive teams.

With the new field, we have experienced approximately fifteen players on each of the 12 teams in the spring season of 2008. We believe once the new field is lighted, we will have an increase in player and volunteer participation. The field is centrally located and amongst two other baseball fields as well as soccer and football fields in the same park. The field was built so that it is easily accessible to all of our players and their families. As the field is under our oversight, we will have control of scheduling and can make dates and times easily available for our teams, which should alleviate problems with most of our families. Lighting will change game scheduling. Some players experience difficulties with direct heat and sunlight. Lighting of the field will help with these problems.