Fort Erie Jr. Cannons raise $4K hitting baseballs for diabetes research

Jack Murray’s teammates stepped up to the plate for him Sunday, hitting 1,000 baseballs and pushing his fundraiser for Type 1 diabetes research to nearly $5,000.

The Fort Erie Junior Cannons 10U rep team held its second Hit Harder Than Type 1 Hit-A-Thon at Oakes Park, swinging from 9 a.m. to noon in support of Jack, a nine-year-old who lives with the disease.

As of Monday, his online fundraising page with Breakthrough T1D Canada showed $4,983 raised from 64 donations, nearly four times his $1,300 goal.

The money goes to Breakthrough T1D Canada, which funds research into better treatments and a cure. The current highest donation to Jack’s page is $1,000.

The 1,000 swings represents the thousands of insulin injections, blood sugar checks and medical decisions children with Type 1 diabetes face every day, according to the Greater Fort Erie Minor Ball Association.

Jack’s coach, Josh Kuderian, says the event helps his teammates understand everything he manages just to stay in the lineup.

Jack monitors his insulin pump, answers regular alerts on his phone and sometimes needs a juice box between innings when his blood sugar drops.

“He works hard, every kid goes through the same thing, all the stuff being an athlete, but Jack has that much more he has to worry about and deal with,” Kuderian told Fort Erie Radio.

Jack was diagnosed in January 2024 and also lives with celiac disease.

His mother, Stephanie Murray, says the idea started last year, when Jack’s team was playing in the Ontario Baseball Association playoffs and the family missed a Type 1 diabetes walk.

Around the same time, an older player on Jack’s hockey team, who is also diabetic, mentioned he planned to hit 100 hockey pucks to raise money. Josh Kuderian, the U10 Cannons’ coach, heard about the idea and turned it into a challenge for the whole team to hit 1,000 baseballs.

That first event raised $413, a total the family embraced because Jack wears No. 13.

This year’s goal was $1,300 for the same reason, but the team blew well past it, bringing in thousands more through donations from Jack’s soccer program, his teachers, family, friends of friends and a jar at the park Sunday.

“It’s just nice for him to see that he’s not alone in it,” Murray told Fort Erie Radio.

Nobody had planned to make the fundraiser annual, but Jack and his mother approached Kuderian a few weeks ago and asked to do it again.

“We thought it was a really good thing just to show Jack that we support him and raise money for Type 1 diabetes,” said Kuderian.

Murray believes researchers are close to a cure and says funding will decide how fast it comes.

“There was a time where I didn’t know how I was going to keep my child alive,” she said, recalling his diagnosis.

She hopes to see Jack live a day without insulin injections or being pulled off the diamond because his sugar is low.

“It would just mean the world to us,” she said.

Ben McDermott, president of the Greater Fort Erie Minor Ball Association, says the young players deserve the real credit.

“The team really is the one that put it together,” said McDermott. “This is what they wanted to do to help build their teammate.”

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