D3Day organizer Dave Clark, left, poses with Austin Booth, right, and Thom "Tank" Cullen of the Punishers Motorcycle Club during the camp, which was held at Phillips Park on Pine Island. RHONDA DOOLEY

Former pro ballplayer Dave Clark brought “Disability, Dream and Do,” otherwise known as D3Day, to Phillips Park on Pine Island on Saturday, May 8. Despite not having an ideal amount of time to put the camp together, Clark says it went very well.

“We had great support from the Pine Island Fire Depart-ment, the United Methodist Church — we pulled everything together in a three-week period,” Clark said.

For 15 years, the D3Day camp has been held at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. Last year, the camp was shut down due to the pandemic and this year it was decided that the camp would be held on Pine Island, where Clark’s son plays Little League, minus the pro ballplayers. According to Clark, 65 kids signed up to play ball, and 48 showed up on game day, where he eagerly awaited their arrival. To Clark, who got polio at 10 moths old, coddling a kid with special needs is a foreign idea.

“Typically, if a child has limitations, we have a tendency to reel them in very close and over protect,” said Clark. “My parents didn’t do that. They never held me back. When I was 18 I ended up signing a professional baseball contract with the Pittsburgh Pirate organization. I pitched 10 years in the minor leagues. I was holding camps for kids with disabilities while I was still playing back in the ’70s and ’80s.”

That’s where “Disability, Dream and Do” first originated. Clark recalls going into towns and searching for homes where challenged kids might be housed. He would invite the kids out to a game, he said, and do a camp for them right on the fields where he played. Although having had polio never got in Clark’s way, he says he did have to do things a bit differently. Now having post-polio, he’s often found on his scooter, rather than on his crutches, he said, to conserve energy, as post-polio is a rapid atrophying disease.

D3Day volunteer Freya Harre, right, with a camp participant. RHONDA DOOLEY

“Post-polio actually forced my retirement as a player,” Clark said. “I could feel my strength ebbing and I really couldn’t do things as I could before.”

Clark said he knew nothing about post-polio until a Baltimore Orioles doctor was examining him after an injury from a previous season. The doctor asked him if he’d had the disease and sent him to Johns Hopkins where Clark says the doctor told him they had a great post-polio unit. After being diagnosed, Clark went into coaching major league baseball.

“Once I retired as a player we got a format going with the camps and I said, why don’t we get the pro players involved?” said Clark.

The camps, Clark said, are done at stadiums all over the country with pro teams, although mostly up and down the east coast. There were 12 camps scheduled for last year, which were all cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, they are trying to get back on track, with a few upcoming camps scheduled. Business partner Doug Cornfield is the driving force behind the D3Day events, Clark said.

“I gave him the idea and he took it and ran with it — he’s tweaked it and we really have a pretty good model now,” said Clark. “He does all the fundraising. We do not charge kids a dime for any of these anywhere. Basically we’re trying to get a message across. You may have limitations, but if you put forth the effort and you can dream, the world is your oyster.”