Little League World Series: Juggling act for Mill Creek parents

If you make it to the Little League World Series as a player or coach, Little League International pays your travel, food and lodging expenses.

But if you’re a parent it can be a juggling act. Some are faced with the challenge of getting time off work, finding a place to stay and digging up a reasonably priced flight a week before the big event.

Most of the Mill Creek Little League parents attended the Northwest Regional Tournament in San Bernadino, Calif. last week and all are planning on making the trip to Williamsport, Pa.

But making reservations a year in advance isn’t Mill Creek’s style. They aren’t ones to assume anything.

“Personally, Scott and I don’t like to look ahead of ourselves,” said Kris Mahlum, the wife of manager Scott Mahlum. “We just play it one game at a time.”

Most of the families bought round trip tickets from $395 to more than $600 right after Mill Creek won the Northwest region. They plan to fly into airports in cities such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Harrisburg, Pa. and Newark, N.J.

“We’re basically coming from all over New York and Pennsylvania to drive in there,” Kris Mahlum said.

Most of the parents will have to stay in motels or bed and breakfasts at least 30 miles outside of Williamsport because everything closer was already booked.

While the team and coaches flew back east on Monday, Kris Mahlum flew back to Mill Creek to get a fundraiser for the parents together.

“I hit the ground running when I got here trying to get everything going and the fundraising part is the biggest obstacle we have now,” said Mahlum, who will leave Friday for Newark with her daughter Nicole.

The league is selling Mill Creek Little League World Series T-shirts for $20 each to help pay for travel expenses for families going to Williamsport. The T-shirts are on sale at Mill Creek Sports Cards in Mill Creek, which is owned by Scott Mahlum.

About $900 worth of T-shirts were sold Wednesday, the first day they were available.

“It sounds like the whole area is really proud,” said Scott Mahlum, who has heard from dozens of well-wishers. “Everybody’s been watching and supporting us. It’s been great.”

Cara Schreiber, the mother of first baseman Alec Kisena, works as a benefits advisor for Guardian Life Insurance Company in Lynnwood and was at an enrollment meeting in Kent this week.

“They knew about it, they watched the game on Saturday,” she said of some of the people in the meeting. “They were excited.”

Schrieber’s husband Jim’s employer, Fisheries Supply in Seattle near Lake Union, also donated $240 to help parents defray the travel costs.

Schrieber plans to fly into Washington, D.C. with her father and drive to Pennsylvania.

Several of the parents already had made travel arrangements to fly to Newark, N.J. for a tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y. that their sons’ Seattle Select team was playing in. Now they’ll use those tickets for a trip to Williamsport.

“For a lot of us dads who are athletic, they’re not only living their own dreams, they’re living their dads’ dreams,” Dan Jondal said.

Pontus Soderqvist, an engineer at Nokia in Redmond and the father of Joakim Soderqvist, scheduled his vacation for August. The family, which is originally from Sweden, planned on traveling back there but “of course plans have changed,” Soderqvist said.

While Pontus Soderqvist had scheduled time off, his wife Maria, used up all her vacation at the San Bernadino tournament. However, her employer, Bothell Pediatric and Hand Therapy, where she works as an occupational therapist, agreed to give her more time off.

The players and coaches expenses are paid for because of a $75 entry fee paid to Little League at the beginning of the season that qualifies them for free travel, food and lodging if they make it to the Series. About $1.5 million is collected every year from those fees to pay for those costs, said Little League spokesman Chris Downs. Leagues are also reimbursed $1 for every mile they travel from the district tournament onward, he said.