Baseball group takes a swing at helping Central Bucks teacher recovering from brain injury

Renee Thorpe’s recovery is measured not in strides but steps. Small but significant. Moderate but meaningful. A more clearly enunciated word here, a detailed recollection there, a thin shaft of light flashing across the night.

The traumatic brain injury the 62-year-old special education teacher for autistic young adults in the Central Bucks School District sustained from a fall last June has left her legally blind and has severely affected her speech and motor skills. She fights to regain some parts of her healthy life. Each success is measured in inches, not miles. Each improvement, however small, is celebrated like Mardi Gras and New Year’s Eve wound into one.

The domino effect has been devastating to the Thorpes. Renee cannot return to work in her present condition. Her husband, Dale, has taken leave from his work to care for her. Unpaid bills are mountainous and unending. Medical prescription costs are backbreaking. Sessions for physical and speech therapy have occasionally been paused when all insurance coverage for the year has been exhausted. Life for Renee, her husband, their five grown children, and adoptive special needs son has been buried beneath an avalanche of bad luck and strangulating reality.

Where does help come from?

Sometimes, it comes out of nowhere. From a stranger.

Homers for Hope pitches in

They will play a baseball game at Hanusey Park in Plumstead on Sunday morning. The Homers for Hope Yankees, an adult men’s team, will play the Montco Phillies. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Thorpe family, as the Homers for Hope organization continues a 12-year mission of raising money for families suffering from a tragic event or illness to help pay for everyday household bills.

Fundraising has already begun, but donations will be collected during the game, and can also be made at https://give.classy.org/yankees2022. After the game, Station Tap House in Doylestown will host a “Dine & Donate” with a portion of all food tabs to be donated to help the Thorpes when mentioning Homers for Hope.

Taking the mound on Sunday, or at least somewhere near the front of it, to throw the ceremonial first pitch will be, in Alyssa Thorpe’s mind, the strongest person she knows.

“Mom has delayed reflexes, so I’m not sure what that throw will look like,” said Alyssa, 24. “But I don’t doubt she’ll do the best she can.

“I’d just like to thank Derrick Morgan for thinking of our family and wanting to help us.”

Sometimes, help comes out of nowhere. Morgan is the founder of the Homers for Hope team and co-owner with his wife of The Monkey’s Uncle, a retro-vintage-inspired T-shirt boutique on Main Street in Doylestown. The connection to the Thorpes was mere happenstance. One day in February, Morgan was speaking with a student that Renee had helped in school who was in a program The Monkey’s Uncle sponsors to give special needs folks job training and experience in the workplace. When the student mentioned what had happened to Renee, Morgan picked up the phone.

“I spoke with Alyssa to get some information about what was happening with her mother and the family in terms of bills and things,” said Morgan, who founded the Homers for Hope baseball team 22 years ago. “When I told her we’d like to help raise money for her family, she was immediately grateful.

“But you’re never going to believe this: I had to convince the family to take the support. Alyssa said Renee said there have to be other families in town who need help more than they do. I kind of understood because of what Renee does for a living — helping those who need help most. In the end, I got them to agree. They really need help.”

Remembering victims:Once again, Pennridge students shed light on victims of gun violence

Shoot, more prayers?:GIANFICARO: What will trigger a change in gun violence?

Renee Thorpe's life goes from celebration to tragedy

June 19, 2021, began as a day of celebration, but ended in unforeseen tragedy. After celebrating at her mom’s birthday party, Renee led her mom and disabled aunt out to the car. Renee fell backward and her head slammed on the asphalt driveway. She lay lifeless. She insisted she was OK, but was convinced to go to urgent care, where the seriousness of her fall was diagnosed.

At Doylestown Hospital, she was diagnosed with subdural hematoma, or brain bleed, severe concussion, and acute hypertension, and was transferred to the trauma ICU at St. Mary Medical Center.

“We’re taking it day by day with mom,” said Alyssa. “She is getting better slowly, but she is improving which is the thing we’re most happy about. It’s affected her. She’s more emotional now. She can’t work in the garden anymore because she gets dizzy. She’s lost her sight.

“It’s been so hard on all of us, especially my dad. He hasn’t been able to work. I’m in school full time at Gwynedd Mercy University studying nursing. You see my mom now, that even though she’s making progress, it’s hard to see her like this, in this position. She’s our mom. She’s the one who used to take care of us; now we have to take care of us. It’s hard. It’s mom, you know?”

'Feel-good baseball'

Morgan’s dedication to helping those who need help most started 22 years ago. One of his players, attorney Bob Mulligan, was a 64-year-old who regaled the players half his age with stories of hiking the Canadian Rockies, flying on the Concorde to Paris, and dancing at the Palace of Versailles, tales that kept them entertained on the bench.

Unbeknownst to any of them, Mulligan was dying of esophogeal cancer. The last time they saw him, he showed up at a game in full uniform after having undergone chemotherapy treatment. He died two weeks later.

“That planted the seeds for us do help people who need it most,” said Morgan. “Then we had a friend, Rip Roscioli, who died unexpectedly at 30 in 2010. He had a wife and a young special needs son. He was the breadwinner. That really struck a chord with us. His wife was like, What do I do now? We raised some money for her. Afterward, we’re like, This is cool. People came to help us do this for other families. That’s how this all started.”

For 45-year-old Morgan, helping people in need through baseball is a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth.

“As someone who has played baseball for almost my entire life, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience tremendous things and meet lifelong friends,” he said. “The game has given me so much. For me to be able to leverage the game and my love for it, to be with like-minded individuals who want to help somebody else is completely fulfilling.

“Tell me, what’s better than that?

Columnist Phil Gianficaro can be reached at 215-345-3078, pgianficaro@theintell.com, and @philgianficaro1 on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Baseball team helping Central Bucks teacher recovering from brain injury