OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — It’s one of the better parts of the College World Series every year, a group of kids, all cancer patients, get one night to forget it all and simply be kids and enjoy some baseball.
“I didn’t think you got to do cool things like this, but I guess we do,” says Madelyn Bullian, a cancer patient.
It’s a night to kick back. Maybe dance a little and enjoy some baseball.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully the atmosphere of all the fans, I’ve been to big soccer games before and it’s just crazy what some people do, I’m just really excited for that,” says Mason Ogle, cancer patient.
Nine kids who currently have, or already have survived cancer got a free trip to the ballpark. but that’s all. They went from Nebraska Medicine to the ballpark in a huge limo and escorting them, around a dozen police officers.
The kids really seemed to like that part.
“Probably a little umm, what’s the word…spoiled I guess you’d say. Cause it’s a limo and you get like 50 police guys with you,” says Connor Dowling, cancer patient.
“You get to watch the expressions of people in the limousine, some of the kids are waving and making faces and it’s just kind of cool because they’re like ‘wonder what really important are in there’ and then you know a bunch of kids get off and they’re scratching their head,” says Debbie Wagers, child life specialist at Nebraska Medicine.
The kids all got to bring at least one friend along for the ride, with all the patients uniting in a common struggle.
“It’s pretty cool. People know what I’m going through, people I can relate too,” says Wyatt Wagaman
This is the 16th year teen cancer patients have gotten the experience, with some of the kids from years back, keeping the friendships they made during the CWS trip to this day.
“They’re like life long friends so I have kids that are now in their upper 20’s and are like 30, 31 and still have those friendships from what they started when they met years ago here,” says Wagers.
Once the kids got to the park they got a free meal, similar to what those in the suites get and they didn’t get put in the nosebleeds either, some of them you could see behind home plate during the TV broadcast.
