We must work together. The inappropriate fliers recently circulated to Garden City School District students by the Garden City Athletic Association (GCAA) are an attempt to mislead the community. Any confusion that now exists has been created by the GCAA in their recent false advertising campaign in their Yahoo-group newsletter, on their website and in fliers circulated to Garden City School District children. To take the position that Cal Ripken baseball does not exist is wrong.

Our mission at the Garden City Athletic Club (GCAC) is not to compete with the GCAA. Our mission is to keep children and adults physically fit and increase health awareness and to keep children out of the house and off of the streets, away from improperly organized parties and redirect their energy towards productive means. It may save a life or positively change someone's future; how this is accomplished, and by whom, makes no difference to us.

The Garden City Athletic Club name was selected after the Garden Athletic Club (founded by two other Garden City residents) dissolved. I'm sorry to disappoint the GCAA but their egocentric thinking is incorrect. In any case, why change our name when the GCAA has recently changed their name to Little League Baseball, Inc.? According to GuideStar, www.guidestar.org, a national database for U.S. non-profit organizations, Garden City Athletic Association, Inc., has changed their name to Little League Baseball, Inc.

I suggest that families join both the GCAA and GCAC to maximize their activities and take advantage of a different program. Our programs differ from those of the GCAA. The GCAA has cut players and left them without a team to play for. In fact, every year for the last four years we have taken players cut by the GCAA (we have been a haven for these players).

The context in which I discuss an organization does determine my point of view about them. On certain policies I may agree with an organization's position and on other issues, I may disagree. In the latter situation, I will usually make a suggestion and if refused I would try to accomplish it myself. In 1997 and 1998, I approached the GCAA with the request for additional opportunities, including travel basketball and travel baseball. My suggestions were respectfully denied. I was told that the GCAA "did not want to get into travel sports." I then tried to get it done myself and we have been somewhat successful despite the many obstacles placed before us by the Recreation Commission.

Regarding our federal lawsuit against the Village of Garden City, the GCAC is not asking for money damages. We are simply asking the court to order the village to treat us as fairly as they do all other organizations. If the village refuses, as they have for the last six years, then we are asking the court to appoint someone to oversee their conduct and make decisions for them. In our first motion to the federal court, Judge Platt gave the village 24 hours to assign us fields or he threatened to revoke all permits. By the following morning, baseball fields, previously marked as occupied, began to appear all over the calendar and all over the village. We were granted more than we had originally asked for. We continue the suit because we continue to be treated disparately. We will discontinue the suit when the village no longer violates the civil rights and privacy rights of the children in our organization.

On January 30, 2004, despite the affidavits of the former president of the GCAA Little League, two other GCAA coaches and Paul Blake (former recreation supervisor), Judge Platt denied the village's motion to dismiss and ordered the case to a jury trial.

The village's cost for the suit is capped at a $10,000 deductible and this may be included in the monthly retainer fees that have been paid to Cullen and Dykman (village counsel). Additionally, if legal fees are reimbursed, the National Union Insurance Company indemnifies the village for up to $5 million and an umbrella policy with Kemper Insurance provides coverage for an additional $10 million. The only volunteers in the village who need to be concerned about liability are the volunteers who conduct themselves in a malicious manner. Now that there is a new chairman of the Recreation Commission, we have been able to make some progress. The GCAC now sponsors baseball, softball, basketball, roller hockey, rugby, indoor soccer, indoor/outdoor volleyball and indoor/outdoor exercise programs.

The GCAC, in effect, has been compelled by the board of trustees to begin an intramural baseball league - this is where our motivation originates. The new guidelines, adopted by the village in 2003, discriminate against us because we don't have an intramural league. We therefore must attempt to create one even though we have told the village numerous times that an additional league is unnecessary.

The GCAA board of directors and GCAA travel coaches do not know what they are writing about - either they have not done their homework, they are biased or they don't know what is going on in their own programs. Why does the GCAA provocatively and maliciously attack another voluntary organization, and its volunteers, when all volunteers should work together? Why not work together instead of trying to alienate us? Why not sit down like peacemakers and act the way we would want our children to act?

Anthony Colantonio

GCAC president