MARYSVILLE — Little League baseball parents sometimes make news for the wrong reasons, but on Tuesday night the moms and dads of the Marysville Little League were All-Stars, every one.
Reaching out to one of their own, and backed by the contributions of businesses and other boosters in town, Marysville Little League families raised thousands of dollars in support of 10-year-old Nolan Lechner, a player who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) last month.
The event was the league’s annual Home Run Derby at Rudy Wright Memorial Field. Individuals, families and businesses sponsored home runs for amounts up to $500, and the donors were announced after each over-the-fence blast.
The competition was open to players from other league’s around Snohomish County, with 66 athletes on hand representing Marysville’s two leagues, plus Lake Stevens, Stilly Valley, Mill Creek, South Everett and Sky Valley. There was also a base-running contest.
Looking on from the grandstand was Nolan Lechner, wearing his Little League uniform, though unable to participate himself. The boy, who is a fourth grader at Marysville’s Allen Creek Elementary School, was one of six 10-year-olds to make the Marysville majors this year.
He was diagnosed on May 7 and began chemotherapy at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital two days later. Shortly after, Marysville Little League officials began brainstorming ways to raise money for what has come to be called the Lechner Wellness Fund.
The response, league president Judd Luton said, “has just been heartwarming. Once we found out this boy was sick, we knew we were going to take care of one of our own. People have been contacting me and saying, ‘Judd, we have to do something.’ And the outpouring has just been huge.”
On Tuesday night, the Home Run Derby was just one of several fundraising efforts. There was a raffle, a donation jar that worked its way through the ballpark, and the Lechner family was also to receive half the proceeds from the concession stand.
The final tally might not be known for another day or two, but Luton was predicting $7,000 to $8,000. “And that may be a conservative number,” he said.
Ron and Connie Lechner, Nolan’s parents, watched the evening’s activities with their son in the stands. This was something of a surprise party for them, as they had been unaware of the efforts under way on their behalf.
“They just called us up (Monday) night at 9:30 and told us to be here at 5 o’clock,” Ron Lechner said.
Having grasped what was happening, he found the contributions of so many to be “very overwhelming. It’s very generous and supportive,” he said.
“It’s overwhelming,” Connie Lechner agreed. “The support we’ve gotten is nice.”
It was Luton’s idea to collect sponsors for the Home Run Derby, and he did much of the legwork to solicit contributions. Of the people he approached, very few passed on the opportunity to pitch in, he said.
Marysville is “a very tight community,” he said. “We all know each other. And everybody was asking me, ‘What can I do?’ … The gathering around Nolan has just been inspiring and heartwarming.
“For me, being a medic (with the Everett Fire Department), it’s always more significant when it’s a child (in need). And now we have a child that’s one of our own and he’s sick, so we’re going to reach out and help him.”
For the kids hitting the home runs and running the bases, it was a night of fun. But it was also a chance to apply baseball principles like teamwork and self-sacrifice to a real-life situation.
“I want these boys to recognize that individually they can make a difference,” he said. “But as a group, look at what we’re able to do for this family. We’re a community and we take care of each other. And that was expressed here in Marysville tonight through baseball.”
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