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No-peanut zone makes Fifth Third Ballpark safe haven (Peanut Fascists strike again)
Grand Rapids Press ^ | June 3rd, 2004 | Shannon Vesper

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: allergies; anaphylactic; anaphylacticshock; annakornakovashock; jimmycarter; pdiddynuts; peanut; peanutallergies; peanutallergy; peanutbutter; peanutgallery; peanuts; snoopy
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To: Xenalyte
AAAAAAARGH!

Perhaps Free Republic should have an imprecise-grammer-free day?

81 posted on 06/15/2004 11:09:26 AM PDT by Flyer (Welcome to Houston Jim Robinson!)
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To: AppyPappy
They are studying the issue to death. Both johns Hopkins and one of the New York City Hospitals - (I forgot which one) continue to research the problem. They are also spending alot of resources into cures and preventative medicines. It is incorrect to say that "they are merely content with controlling the behavior of others". We would be happy not changing anything. Inspecting backpacks is obviously going too far. They would be better served keeping the kids apart at lunch which is what they do in our school district.
82 posted on 06/15/2004 11:09:58 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: Your Nightmare

Not how I'm reading it.


83 posted on 06/15/2004 11:10:07 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: Flyer

Ah, you have taken my dream and made it into words.


84 posted on 06/15/2004 11:11:44 AM PDT by Xenalyte (This dog bite me.)
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To: Freebird Forever

American - although the problem is as bad if not worse in Canada.


85 posted on 06/15/2004 11:12:46 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: FrankR
My "right" to go to the ballpark is pretty well covered in the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness clause...makes me happy to go there [at least before the peanut police arrived].

Constitutional rights only apply when you are dealing with a government entity. You have the right to free speech, but I can kick you out of my living room if I don't like your opinions. You have the right to bear arms, but a private business can prevent you from bringing your gun on the premises. How about this- it makes me "happy" to drive your car without your permission. So, stopping me from doing so would violate my constitutional rights.

Damn, you're sort of testy about this aren't you? I'm not even going to mention tobacco...jeeezzzeeee

I'm testy about people demanding that a private business sell them certain things or allow them to bring certain things onto the premises when that business has decided otherwise.

Oh, here we go...liberal trolls always try to underline their point of view with the "why is that so hard to grasp" line. Well, Mr. Bleeding Heart, I do grasp what you are saying, I JUST HAPPEN NOT TO AGREE WITH IT. Does your self-effacing sense of liberty not include that?

That's your right, but it certainly is not your right to violate a private business' rules.

A private business passes a rule and yet you seem to be demanding that they respect your "right" to violate that rule? And you call me liberal? Sheesh. Your penumbra is emanating.

It's obvious that you are a card-carrying member of the peanut police, and are hell bent on having it your way...so, OK...have it your way.

I have no opinion as to whether or not businesses should do things like this. I really don't care whether they sell peanuts or not. I am in favor, however, of a private business being allowed to ban whatever (and pretty much whoever) it wants from its premises.

86 posted on 06/15/2004 11:15:43 AM PDT by Modernman ("I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members" -Groucho Marx)
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To: vabeachrepub

It makes no difference in if it effects MY LIFe. That was your question. Not being able to eat peanuts at the ballpark effects my life regardless of who initiated the absurb measure that's entirely out of proportion to the actual problem at hand.

Are there ballparks with peanut-free sctions? If so then it's not a strawman.

No it doesn't make good business sense. On average a section will seat around 100 people. Given the standard draw of a minor league ball park you're closing off 1/30 of the seats to "assist" less than 1% of the attendees. Meanwhile you have to train your walking vendors not to sell certain items in those sections, and your event staff no to allow people to bring certain items into those sections. Then if something goes wrong, since you've made this promise you're now liable for damages that may arise from accidental introduction of peanuts into this section. All for 3 people with an allergy plus whoever they bring with them. That's terrible business sense, a dramatic increase in cost of legal liability for not even enough people to fill the section.


87 posted on 06/15/2004 11:15:57 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: rintense

Peanut Nazis = Liberals

Just don't eat it. Makes perfect sense. Now my rights to enjoy a good nutty buddy cone has been infringed upon by the left.

What's next? No beer because it contains alcohol?


88 posted on 06/15/2004 11:17:08 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Only difference between the liberals and the Nazis is that the liberals love the Communists.)
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To: Xenalyte
Ah, you have taken my dream and made it into words

Yeah, but I may never post to you again for fear of getting the virtual tar beaten out of me.

89 posted on 06/15/2004 11:18:31 AM PDT by Flyer (Welcome to Houston Jim Robinson!)
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To: discostu
"But it's like 1 out of a million people with peanut allergies so bad that even peanut dust could set them off. Why should the entire rest of the country re-arrange how they live for such a tiny number of people? People that have food allergies need to think ahead, I know plenty of people with plenty of different food allergies and they just cope, that's what you're supposed to do in life, not demand the world change for you."

I concur.

90 posted on 06/15/2004 11:21:29 AM PDT by G.Mason (A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride…Max Lerner)
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To: Sabertooth
How did folks with peanut allergies survive before their recent efforts to make the world peanut-safe?

They went into anaphylactic shock, and died.

My daughter has a classmate with a peanut allergy. It hasn't proved to be a problem at all; She can eat all the peanut butter (her favorite food, BTW) she wants when she gets home. The other students and their parents have been very understanding about the situation.

91 posted on 06/15/2004 11:21:35 AM PDT by LouD
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To: vabeachrepub

The kids eat a snack in the classroom. That snack could include peanut products.

I'm still aghast that parents would send their kids into a potentially fatal situation.


92 posted on 06/15/2004 11:22:02 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: Your Nightmare
"I must be blind.

I'm sorry for your affliction.

All is not lost. You may have a good chance to become an umpire. ;)

As far as ... "Here's a ballpark that chose to have a "Bark at the Park" and people could bring their dogs. link They had the freedom to let dogs into their stadium, if somebody didn't like dogs they had the freedom to stay home ..."

What can I say, except I will keep it from my two dogs. Should they find out about that, I will have a mutiny on my hands.

93 posted on 06/15/2004 11:27:46 AM PDT by G.Mason (A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride…Max Lerner)
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To: Modernman
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.

Don't count on it. While the team itself may be privately owned, I bet the stadium is owned and/or financed by the public. Regardless, while I don't have a problem with a private organization deciding to sell certain kinds of food or other products, I do have a problem with people who expect society to change to accommodate the needs of one percent of the population, when the real solution is for the parents of these hyperallergic parents to closely supervise their children and teach them not to eat or touch the peanuts.

94 posted on 06/15/2004 11:35:39 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
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To: discostu

You aren't being stopped from eating peanuts at the ballpark.


95 posted on 06/15/2004 11:36:07 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: vabeachrepub

Then it is theoretically possible for someone who has been eating peanuts and has such dusty residue upon his or her clothes to cause your child an allergic reaction by merely brushing against him/her on the street. I take it you keep an EpiPen on hand.

While I sympathise with your child's problem, and it seems you have a more realistic approach to peanut-free zones, more parents of such afflicted children are demanding the outright prohibition on nuts in general. This is causing the reaction we see here. Many Americans are tired of hearing that 'you shall not do this that or the other' because someone doesn't like or is allergic to a given substance.

I idly wonder if it processed peanuts/oils that have caused this, as opposed to natural peanuts/oils. Manufacturing proccesses can do some funny things.


96 posted on 06/15/2004 11:38:22 AM PDT by ex 98C MI Dude (Proud Member of the Reagan Republicans)
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To: Xenalyte
I refuse to have a tubful of nieces to whom I cannot feed PB&J sammiches.

With a baseball bat.

97 posted on 06/15/2004 11:41:37 AM PDT by humblegunner (Cycloaliphaticpolyamines!)
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To: Sabertooth

My sister is allergic to bees. I vote for no bee night.


98 posted on 06/15/2004 11:46:30 AM PDT by petercooper (Now, who's this Joe Mayo everyone's talking about?)
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To: FourtySeven

I think you have something exactly backwards. You suggested maybe "kids are NOT exposed to allergens when they are very young" as the reason they become allergic. That is wrong. It is when babies are exposed to *too much* of an allergen when they are very young that they develop an allergy to it.
Of course, that applies to children who have inherited the allergic gene from their parents.

Your other point that there sometimes needs to be more than one allergen involved to cause the reaction can be correct.


99 posted on 06/15/2004 11:49:48 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: vabeachrepub

I would be on peanut-free days. That would be the whole point of the thing, to not have any products with peanuts or peanut by productsin them being consumed in the whole ballpark.


100 posted on 06/15/2004 12:11:55 PM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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