Twilight Wish holds surprise 70th birthday party for Special Olympics kingpin
BUTLER TWP — The Twilight Wish Foundation made another senior citizen’s wildest dream become a reality on Sunday evening, Oct. 27, when a group of friends from the Special Olympics community came together to throw a surprise 70th birthday party for Miles Morris at the Family Bowlaway on Fairground Hill Road.
“I was so surprised,” Morris said. “It made me feel good.”
The location of the occasion couldn’t have been more fitting. While Morris has played numerous sports over the years, bowling is his one true love.
“He started out in swimming,” said Miles’ brother, Neil. “He won medals, and as he progressed he started to do bowling more, and he stopped swimming.”
Bowling was also how Miles linked up with many of the people who would support him at the surprise party, mainly through the Butler County Special Olympics’ Sunday Night Bowling league at Family Bowlaway. Friends and family describe Morris as a champion in every sense of the word.
“He is the most thoughtful, kind, generous guy I know,” Scott Pitzer said.
“I see him every Sunday at bowling, and he comes over every once in a while and he tells me how he bowls,” Jeff Myers said. “And he always has stories to tell about his family.”
“He is the sweetest fellow,” Diane Myers said. “He’s just a joy to be around.”
The idea to hold a bowling-themed surprise party came from a conversation that Miles struck up back in February with his friend, Tricia Pritchard, who is also a volunteer for the Butler County chapter of Twilight Wish.
“Miles wrote me a letter, and he invited me to his birthday party. And I thought this was kind of unusual for him to write me this letter describing a party that was going to happen so far ahead,” Pritchard said. “He kind of gave me the idea, ‘Why don’t we have it for him?’ And then our Twilight Wish organized it.”
His crowning achievement in bowling occurred in 2003, when he traveled to Dublin, Ireland, for the Special Olympics World Games to represent the USA and won a gold medal.
“That was probably the highlight of his bowling career,” Neil said.
At the end of the evening, Pritchard handed Morris his two presents: a Pittsburgh Penguins shirt and a commemorative bowling trophy.
