7th Annual Monster Ball Raises $4,000 for Special Olympics

Rain and mud couldn’t put a stop to the Monster Ball Thursday night. The seventh annual fundraiser was relocated from the Sandite Softball Complex to Memorial Stadium and raised $4,000 for Special Olympics.

“It’s just gotten bigger and bigger and snowballed every year,” said Carrie Schlehuber, director of special education for Sand Springs Public Schools.

“This year we were so fortunate that (Athletic Director Rod) Sitton let us have it here at the football field because with all the rain we were afraid we were going to have to cancel.”

The event began in 2016 when Jessica Collins, then a senior softball player and Special Olympics partner at Charles Page High School, came up with the idea.

The Charles Page High School softball team plays the baseball team in a slow-pitch battle where the baseball players are required to bat from their non-dominant side and all players are in costume. Special Olympians play alongside both teams.

In recent years it has expanded to include hay rides, dizzy bat races, a costumed children’s parade, and a trunk-or-treat.

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“Our wheels are already turning for next year about how we could do it here next year and really make it an even bigger event,” said Schlehuber.

The softball team won this year’s event 11-9 after after coming back from a 5-0 first inning deficit.

Special Olympian Lilly Berna hit an inside-the-park grand slam to tie it at 5-5 and senior shortstop Kelsi Hilton scored the go-ahead run on an error.

Donald Duck tied things up in the second with a sacrifice hit, but Berna added a two-run infield homer in the bottom of the inning and the softball team never relinquished the lead.

“You can just see if you watch our varsity athletes at all, they’re unbelievable with our Special Olympians,” said Schlehuber. “They’re so so good interacting with them. It’s really meaningful to me because our entire community comes together and our Special Olympians get to be highlighted in a way that maybe they don’t normally get to be seen.”

“I just feel like our community is so supportive of our Special Olympians and our Special Ed program,” said event organizer and school counselor Megan Elliott. “We’re so inclusive and I just think we have great support. We always have.”