By Jay Sorgi • Posted May 27, 2025

Each week a friendly but fiercely played whiffleball game affirms for the players and their helpers the value of God-given dignity for each person.

“It’s an amazing, fulfilling time. It’s one of the best parts of the year for me,” says Kelsey Gula Aitken, commissioner of the Challenger League.

She and her husband Steve Aitken act as driving forces to help 30 participants with intellectual disabilities from the Communities of Don Guanella and Divine Providence – a ministry of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia – compete in community at St. Pius X Parish in Broomall, Delaware County for five successive Wednesdays in April and May.

“In this type of game, working all together, creating these memories, that is truly where you can see God’s presence and the joy that he can bring.”

If the typical rec softball league presents a good time, then the Challenger League is out-of-the-park joy.

Generations of the Gula family have made this endeavor of joy their mission for 27 years, offering time, talent, and treasure to empower those with disabilities to experience the fun of sports.

“The genesis began with Kelsey’s father, Jim Gula,” said Servant of Charity Father Dennis Weber, Jim’s longtime friend  and the director of ministry and mission for the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Division of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia.

“It was after our 25th high school reunion at (Msgr.) Bonner (High School), and in conversations with Jim, we began to make some connection that I was ministering at Don Guanella. Jim expressed the desire to begin to help out the volunteers and to become part of different activities.”

Gula turned the Challenger League into his ministry, acting as everything from commissioner to volunteer coordinator and the impetus behind constructing locations for the friendly competition.

It wasn’t a struggle for his daughter, Gula, to make the league her vocation.

“It was easy for my father to pass on this legacy as well, because we were involved all the time,” she said. “It was just part of our lives. It was easy. Once you start to become involved, it’s easy to stay involved.”

The volunteers prove her point, as they range from longtime supporters to students to sports teams from Cardinal O’Hara and Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High Schools. They have played a critical part in keeping this league thriving for longer than a quarter-century.

“We have a great group of individuals that have been involved for 20-plus years, that stay involved,” said Gula Aitken.

“They show up each and every year, and now we’re just trying to build on the new generation I have. Hopefully we can just keep building off of that as well.”

The reason they all continue to volunteer becomes obvious, once they interact with the dozens of women and men who find such tangible happiness from playing sports together.

“I’m on campus at Divine Providence, and the joy and the excitement every Wednesday from our ladies — I’m sure (at) Don Guanella, it’s the same — all they talk about all day long is that Challenger’s tonight,” said Communities of Don Guanella and Divine Providence Philanthropy Officer Dawn O’Neill.

“Patty, who’s on campus here, got MVP. I wasn’t at the game, and later on she found me, running, screaming and crying that she got MVP!”

Patty’s enthusiasm illuminates the passionate nature these 30 men and women have every Wednesday night when the wiffleball party begins.

“When they come, especially the guys, they’re very competitive. It’s all business,” O’Neill said.

“We give out MVP balls at the end of each game, and they are with purpose,” Gula Aitken said. “For example, someone that was nervous to go up to bat the week before and then had the courage to get up there and hit the ball. The goal is, by the end of the season, everyone will get a chance to be an MVP.”

Reflections of God’s handiwork aren’t hard to find among this merry band of bat-swingers and the volunteers who become their companions for a competitive night every week.

“God is present in every aspect of what we’re doing, certainly in the persons themselves,” said Father Weber. “They’re as all of us are. They’re created in God’s image and likeness, and they certainly reflect that in their lives, but that’s something that’s not always recognized by others outside of the disability community. To affirm that and to acknowledge that, to see God in that, it’s just so important.

“So much of what Kelsey said, just the joy that comes from (God), the happiness, the peace — all those are God-like qualities that are very apparent every week, and then the willingness of the volunteers to give of themselves, that’s certainly a witness to who Jesus was.”

Perhaps Gula Aitken puts it best, for participant, volunteer and commissioner alike.

“It’s having those human connections that are just a joy,” she said.

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For more information or to volunteer, contact Dawn O’Neill at doneill@chs-adphila.org.