MIKEY'S LEAGUE ONLINE AUCTION

Mikey’s League was founded by an army veteran with the goal of challenging the limits placed on children and young adults with disabilities in our society. We work towards this goal by running inclusive sports programs. Inclusive means we bring athletes with disabilities together on teams with their non-disabled peers and change the rules of the game to allow everyone to meaningfully compete. We are fully inclusive and work with athletes of any gender with physical disabilities, cognitive disabilities, or no disabilities. In the fall of 2019, we ran our first full season of flag football for children ages 8-14. Coming out of the COVID break we have had more than 100 athletes with disabilities participate in our basketball and football programs in 2021.

Michael “Mikey” Bender was born with cerebral palsy and a backwards heart. Doctors told his family that he would never be able to walk and would not live past the age of three. This picture is of Mikey proving how strong he really was.

Mikey was passionate about sports and did not let his disabilities hold him back. Even though there were no intramural programs for him, he played backyard sports with his brothers and their friends. Those games became some of the best, and most enduring memories for both Mikey and his family.

Mikey passed in 2008 at the age of 21. It is in honor of his legacy that we established Mikey’s League with a mission to create lasting memories and share Mikey’s love of sport.

Mikey’s League was formed by childhood friends, Karl Bender and Scott Freeman. We are continually inspired by Mikey and aim to challenge the idea that kids with disabilities need to be treated differently. We want to expand Mikey’s backyard football experience to the Valley, and in doing so provide opportunities for the community to come together in seeing how strong it can be.