Miracle League board member meets the inspiration behind playing catch

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - Kevin Negaard plans to play catch every single day for an entire year to raise money for the Miracle League of Sioux City.

The “Wanna Have A Catch” campaign kicked off Saturday night with a special event to mark the start of his journey.

Negaard has always been a guy that loves to play catch. He discovered a special book “A Year of Playing Catch” which details Ethan Bryan’s journey of throwing the baseball every single day.

Negaard was inspired, and knew this was an opportunity for him to make an impact on his community.

“So when I read the book, I’ve been a baseball player and it runs deep in my family. And I’m just like, ‘I can do this.’ I have a job that gives me flexibility. My 60th birthday is coming up. So that’d be a perfect time to launch it. And so it just made sense at that point in time,” said Negaard.

Negaard and Bryan eventually got in touch with each other. Negaard shared how inspired he was, and shared his plans of playing catch every day to raise money for the Miracle League of Sioux City.

Bryan was honored, but even more inspired by the work Negaard plans to do.

“I get this email from Kevin that says, ‘Hey, I read your book. It’s very inspirational. I loved it. I’m going to turn 60 in January, and I have an idea. I want to play catch everyday for a year and raise $100,000 for my local miracle league.’ And he wanted to make sure that that he had my permission to do so, as if anyone needs my permission to play catch. And I was like, ‘This is amazing. Absolutely,’” said Bryan, author of “A Year of Playing Catch.”

Negaard planned the kickoff event and thought to himself, ‘How cool would it be if Ethan came with his book?’

“He says, ‘Well, we’re going to have this big kickoff event on January 22. Would you like to come up?’ Well, I live in Springfield, Missouri. That’s about a seven and a half hour drive. I said, as long as weather’s willing, I would be more than delighted to be here. And it’s just been an incredible day,” said Bryan.

Negaard says its hard to put into words what it means that Bryan came out to this event. He’s honored that Bryan wants to take this effort to an even bigger level, as they support the Miracle League of Sioux City.

Copyright 2022 KTIV. All rights reserved.