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'It's just really something special' | UT Student starts nonprofit to bring baseball experience to people with disabilities

Tanner Kim is a junior at the University of Tennessee, who says he wanted to share the sport he loved with people who may have never experienced it before.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The League of Angels is a Knoxville-based nonprofit that works to connect people with disabilities with the sport of baseball. 

"No matter what disabilities you might have, you can still go out and play the game of baseball that everybody knows and loves," said Tanner Kim, the founder of the league.

The lifetime baseball player says he started the organization to give a new experience to people with disabilities. 

"They never thought in their life that they would get to hit a home run, they never thought in their life that they would get to be a baseball player for a day," said Kim. "So that's, that's really what it's all about when those kids run around the bases, and they finally hit home plate."

This moment is often emotional for their loved ones and leaders like Kim who work hard to keep the program up and running.

"Moms that are videoing their kid while they're crying and they're like, I'd never thought that my kid could play baseball in any way," said Kim. 

"It fills me with gratitude just seeing the parent's faces and the kids while they're running around smiling, that it's just really something special," said Brock Hodges with the league.

The organization strives to bring a sense of community and inclusion to the diamond. 

"When you would think that you would never get on the field and you get to touch one of these bases. It's a it's a brand-new feeling. And it's so awesome," Kim said. 

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