Southington Resident And Former Ball Player Takes In The New Britain Bees

Southington Resident Parrish Castor (center) enjoys a family night out with the New Britain Bees Friday, May 20, while attending MS Community Day at New Britain Stadium. Castor is pictured with his sister Jessica Walker (left) and mother Dianna Castor (right) all three of whom are living with multiple sclerosis, a potentially debilitating disease affecting the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis is thought to be brought about by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, but the likelihood of three members of the same family all developing MS is very small. Dianna Castor was diagnosed with the disease in 2002, while Castor was in college. It wasn’t until 2012 that Castor himself was diagnosed, and his sister’s diagnosis came two years after that. Castor, who now works for a family company in Bristol, used to be a left-handed pitcher for the minor league baseball team the Florida Marlins. His sister and mother currently live in New Hampshire, where Castor grew up, but made the trip down just to enjoy MS Community Day with the family.

MS Community Day is organized by the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, and is generously funded by the Hayley’s Hope and Michaela’s Miracle MS Memorial Fund. The day featured a barbecue before the Bees took on the York Revolution. The night was also deemed ‘MS Awareness Night’ by the Bees, with National MS Society signage decorating the stadium, all Bees staff donning MS volunteer t-shirts, National MS Society constituents throwing out the first pitch with an orange baseball, and promoting the Chapter’s next big fundraiser, the 2016 Bike MS Praxair Off The Chain Ride. For more information on multiple sclerosis and available programs and services offered by the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, to those battling MS, visit ctfightsMS.org.