NDP Cheer Team Spends Sunday With Euro-Peds Miracle League

For the sixth year in a row, the Notre Dame prep cheer team spent a day volunteering at the Euro-Peds-sponsored Miracle League event at the dome-covered Oakland Yard in Waterford. Euro-Peds, a pediatric-therapy clinic located at Doctors' Hospital of Michigan in Pontiac, specializes in treating children and young adults with neuromuscular disorders. The Miracle League of Michigan has a Family Fun day every year and Euro-Peds is a big part of it.

From left, NDP cheer team members Kennedy Ewald (9), Kennedy Quirk (12) and Caroline Hauck (10) are with Euro-Peds patient April.

According to cheer head coach and Notre Dame alumni director Beth Campbell, the team looks forward to the annual event. "The kids play baseball and golf and our cheer athletes also help with dancing, hula-hoop and face painting," she said. "It really is a lot of fun and a great cause!"

Campbell said that a number of boys from the NDP soccer team also were on hand today to help out.

About Euro-Peds

The Euro-Peds clinic (www.europeds.org) based out of Doctors’ Hospital of Michigan in Pontiac, Michigan, is a specialized hospital-based therapy program for children and young adults who have cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular disorders. The specialized clinic opened in 1999 as the first hospital-based therapy program in the U.S. to offer a progressive, new intensive physical therapy model for children and young adults who have Cerebral Palsy and other gross motor disorders caused from brain trauma. Prior to 1999, parents were traveling to Poland for similar therapy. Over the years, Euro-Peds continued to evolve their program and began to successfully integrate Eastern Europe’s specialized therapy tools–like suit therapy and the Universal Exercise Unit–with the Western style that emphasized a more individualized approach. Children benefit from the intensive bursts of therapy by learning new functional skills leading to greater independence, confidence and health. Parents also benefit by an emphasis on education and support. Today, Euro-Peds is a national center for intensive pediatric PT and has treated over 1100 patients from 45 states and 5 different countries at their clinic in Pontiac.

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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy

Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.