Sometimes good things happen to rad people, and lord knows Randi Oomens is rad people.
Oomens lost her vision due to multiple sclerosis in 2008, but that hasn't stop her from enjoying baseball. Oomens is the biggest Tampa Bay Rays fan in Tucson. I have been following Oomens, also known as Ro and @raynaadi on Twitter, for some time, and she live tweets every Devil Rays game. Oomen's lifelong dream is to travel to Tropicana Field and catch a live game. Her enthusiasm caught the attention of the MLB team, Oomen's Twitter followers and the Tampa Bay Tribune.
The beloved Twitter star made the front page of the Tribune's Sunday sports page:
@Raynaadi inside in sports, you occupy the top half of the front page above the fold pic.twitter.com/p3EafbeMYE
— davis williams (@newspaper_man) March 2, 2014Oomens will meet players and manager Joe Maddon and his coaches. Rays pitcher David Price wants his dog, Astro, to meet Jayden. There will be a Rays home jersey for Oomens and a visit to the radio booth during one of the games.
The Rays gave Oomens 12 tickets to the first three games. Oomens' hotel room and plane ticket have been covered by her Twitter family (and she'll be able to take along her sight dog, Jayden).
Amanda Hebden (@MandaGator) and @PrTwain established a paypal to collect donations to pay for Oomen's flight. The crew was able to raise over $1,600.
Oomens' heartwarming story has been picked by various baseball blogs and she's been invited on sports talk radio shows since this story went viral. Reportedly, a legion of fans will be waiting to meet her she gets to Tampa.
Oomens will be here for six days. She has a legion of loyal friends who speak with her regularly through the wonders of social media. They can’t wait to finally meet her.
You can doante via PayPal at raynaadi (at) gmail.com and buy her some peanuts or Cracker Jacks.
(via: Tampa Bay Tribune)
