Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate celebrates camp for deaf on special night

Years ago, Dylan Heuer attended Iowa Baseball Camp for the Deaf and eventually became the bat boy for Triple-A Iowa. When he returned as team photographer for the Cubs affiliate and found out the camp no longer existed, he brought it back. He wanted others in the deaf community to have the same positive experience with baseball that he did.

On Thursday, he witnessed the importance of that effort as well as educating the public about American Sign Language as the I-Cubs celebrated ASL and Deaf Culture Night at Principal Park.

Campers were invited to sign the national anthem and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch, and the team wore uniforms designed by Heuer that spelled out “Iowa” in ASL.

“The night has been amazing,” Heuer said over the phone through translator Julia Lyttle. “It’s been exhausting but so much fun and worth it to see all the kids and all the different people here smiling, the campers, their families, staff and so many members of the deaf community that are here.”

Heuer, who became deaf after contracting meningitis when he was 7 months old, participated in the original camp in 1999. After becoming a bat boy and working for the I-Cubs, he headed off to college in Rochester. Upon his return to the team in 2015, he made the decision to start up the camp again.

“I just felt a little bit disappointed seeing that there wasn’t this opportunity for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids,” he said. “So I thought, ‘I’m going to try and resurrect it and be able to have that for kids to have access for baseball and the communication that they need in their native language.’”

The I-Cubs have been nothing but supportive about Heuer’s endeavor. The camp takes place for one week in late June to coincide with the team’s homestand so campers can attend games. Players visit the camp and teach baseball skills to the attendees, who have been invited to participate in in-game events like signing the national anthem.

“We got a great response from our fans and community on the American Sign Language jerseys,” I-Cubs assistant GM Randy Wehofer said. “Even better, we saw lots of smiles and excitement from the campers and their families while signing the national anthem on the field and the seventh-inning stretch from the stands. We’re proud to partner with Dylan Heuer and his team that organizes the camp and spotlight the work they do to support local kids and families with fun events like this.”

This year’s event was extra special, evident in the growth of the camp and the public’s awareness outside of baseball. Heuer was particularly heartened by the ASL jerseys donned by the team for the night. The jerseys were featured in the evening’s silent auction, which netted $2,000 for the Iowa Baseball Camp for the Deaf.

“That’s our language that represents a lot of who we are and what we love,” he said. “It’s impactful to see that they are recognizing us and that the deaf community is heard.”

Although Heuer has taken note of the smiles on the faces of the campers, staff and those supporting the camp, he hasn’t had much time this week to process the achievement. He expects a lot of happy tears when he does, though.

“I started my baseball journey with the old camp that I was a student at and that built my partnership with the Iowa Cubs,” Heuer said. “I hope that that impact, how impactful [the camp] has been to my life, also impacts the students and the staff and all the volunteers that come and are involved with IBCD.”