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Posted on 06/15/2004 8:21:01 AM PDT by Sabertooth
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack ...
This familiar line from the baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" doesn't have the same happy meaning for Timothy Haverkamp that it does for most fans.
Timothy, a first-grader from Ada Elementary, is allergic to peanuts.
"He was allergic to everything when he was little. His brother is allergic to peanuts, too," Jane Haverkamp, Timothy's mother, said. "He never had a life-threatening emergency with peanuts, but we don't keep any at home."
Timothy attended Wednesday's West Michigan Whitecaps game without fear of an attack. The team hosted its second "Peanut Free" day during an 11 a.m. game at Fifth Third Ballpark against the Fort Wayne Wizards.
The game was also the Whitecaps' third School Days promotion of the year, with groups of schoolchildren in attendance.
All peanut products -- from Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to chopped peanuts for ice cream -- were pulled from concession stands, and the stands received a special cleaning Tuesday night.
" We remove any peanuts from the stand or any product with peanut or peanut oil and take it off site. We pressure wash where the peanut roaster was and was," concessions manager Matt Timon said. "We get rid of everything contaminated by peanuts and take get rid of it for the day.
"The vendors are real supportive of it and help us out with it. They were fine with pulling their product for the entire day. They weren't concerned with the lost sales. Pulling candy bars on kids day is a tough thing to do. There is some loss, but it's worth it to get the kids with allergies in the game."
According to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, more than three million Americans suffer from a peanut allergy. Even the smallest particle of peanut can trigger a reaction. Some reactions include hives or slow breathing, but some can be life threatening.
"It is nice to know that we don't even have to worry about it today," Jane Haverkamp said.
The "Peanut Free" day was started last year when Rebecca Andrusiak, a parent from Ada Elementary, contacted the Whitecaps. She told the team that because of her son's allergy, he would not be able to attend the School Days game with his classmates unless peanuts were removed from the stadium.
Whitecaps officials consulted the most knowledgeable sources they could find about how to make the stadium a no-peanut zone.
"We talked to parents of kids that already have the allergies," Timon said. "They're all really familiar since they have been dealing with it their whole lives, and told us what we needed."
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Thanks for the ping!
I was really shocked when, on a recent flight, I was handed several packets of peanuts as a snack... Which was great because the "trail mix" (sans peanuts) they had really sucked...
Doesn't Cracker Jacks have peanuts? The song just doesn't work anymore at all.
Perhaps they should stay home and watch the game on TV, or get a friend, with normal genetics, to tape the game.
Hey, they won't even have to get sick from SUV exhausts, or second hand smoke twenty miles upstream, or smell that terribly debilitating fast food, not to mention those self centered people that have the nerve to wear perfume, and deoderant.
These people need a plastic bubble.
I don't like the peanut fascists. But I see nothing wrong with a ballpark banning peanuts and peanut products a few days per season. Just so long as peanuts aren't banned for the entire season the way they are banned year 'round by some school cafeterias
Or, the parents could be responsible and keep the kid out of harm's way -- like we do our daughter, without making the world conform to them.
Although it is a scary thing to run to the ER everytime the kid has an exposure, we have been proactive and have not had to make that run for 2 years. It's all a matter of looking out for your own.
Since this is a voluntary action by a team, and only for one day, I say, why not?
Good for the kid.
Good marketing for the ballpark.
You think I should put my son in a plastic bubble? Man - I wish I had thought of that earlier. And here I have been trying to get him involved in all those activities trying to prepare him for life in the world. And to think I've been wasting my time - I could have just given up and sealed him off.
Jeeze you're right. I could have been responsible for the death of some allergically charged person.
Buy me some peanuts nonallergic soy protein nuggets and Cracker Jacks extruded rice morsels.
Shrug. A private organization choosing what kind of food they want to sell at their events. I don't see why anyone would have a problem with this.
Jeeze you're right. I could have been responsible for the death of some allergically challenged person.
Buy me some peanuts nonallergic soy protein nuggets and Cracker Jacks extruded rice morsels.
You don't have a "right" to go to a ballpark. It's private property and the owner is choosing not to sell a certain product at a certain time.
Wear a mask...or stay home.
Actually, if you don't like the ballpark's rules, you're the one who should stay home.
Thank goodness somebody out there is fighting the noble battles against this rampant peanut-ism which, even as we speak, is tearing at the delicate moral fabric of our society. The bastard legacy of George Washington Carver is an imminent threat to the well-being and livelihood of tens and possibly even hundreds of people. Can the crunchy menace be stopped? Thanks to the efforts of people like these, commonfolk like myself have been given new hope in the battle against peanut related allergies.
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