Meet the Touchmark resident leaving her mark for a Sioux Falls Little League team

It’s unlikely that anyone watching a Little League team play pays much attention to the patches attached to the team’s jerseys.

If you’re a Little Leaguer participating in this week’s Midwest Regional Tournament, however, you can’t approach the plate or take the field without that patch affixed securely to your uniform’s left shoulder.

The Sioux Falls team playing in Friday afternoon’s game — and any subsequent matchups — can focus on pitching, hitting and catching without any worries about being improperly attired. After learning that the glue originally attaching the patches to the sleeve was inadequate, a Sioux Falls woman stepped up to the plate, so to speak.

Linda Baloun fired up her trusty Bernina and sewed the patches securely to the jerseys 22 times, once on a white jersey, once on a blue jersey, for 11 of the 12 boys who make up the Sioux Falls team. The mother of the 12th player did the sewing herself.

Baloun, a retired teacher, has no connection to any of the players selected for the Little League team, but she lives at Touchmark at All Saints, which has a double tie. Touchmark’s executive director, Amanda Snoozy, has a son, Maxen, who will play on the team representing South Dakota. And resident Louella Steffen has a great-grandson, Grayson Rehfeldt, on the team.

Steffen, Baloun and other Touchmark residents cheered on the team in person at a Wednesday morning breakfast before the players departed for Indiana.

“We are beyond excited for the boys to hold the breakfast and team sendoff at Touchmark, but for us, it is extra special given how important one particular resident is to our family,” said Grayson’s father and Steffen’s grandson Rocky Rehfeldt. “Grayson’s great-grandmother Louella has been a resident for several years at Touchmark, and for her to be able to be there for this important day, it is really special.”

Baloun’s willingness to take on the sewing project highlights community connection, craftsmanship and quiet support that can be offered across generations, said Andi Huisman, Touchmark’s resident services director.

“This is more than just a sewing task — it’s a symbol of local support,” she said. “This small act of service has sparked big conversations here at Touchmark about how meaningful it is when generations support one another. Linda’s contribution ensures these young athletes take the field looking sharp and feeling backed by their community. It’s a quiet but powerful way to show that Sioux Falls stands behind them, even from miles away.”

Baloun didn’t hesitate when Snoozy asked if she would be willing to use her sewing skills to help the team. In the six years she has lived at Touchmark, she has helped many residents and staff members with mending and altering needs. Her only refusal came when she was confronted with a pair of underwear best suited to the rag bag.

Snoozy told Baloun about the faulty glue that led the patches to fall off when the jerseys were washed. Could she sew them on, the executive director asked. Sure, Baloun said. “Well, there are 12 boys,” Snoozy said.

“I said, I can do them all,” Baloun said. “I don’t mind doing that for kids. It’s for Sioux Falls, and they’re just 12 years old. I like sewing for people.”

It took Baloun five minutes per jersey to attach the patches, first pinning them to the sleeve, then easing them under her sewing machine’s foot.

“I stitch it in the ditch between the white and the navy, and then you don’t see it,” she said. “It just looks like it was always that way.”

Baloun learned to sew as a girl growing up on a farm near Viborg. When she was still in junior high, she would sew formals for older classmates to earn spending money.

She started her career as a home economics teacher, then earned a master’s degree in physics. She taught on the Crow Creek Reservation, in Polo and at various universities, but she spent 20 years as a chemistry teacher at Lincoln High School.

When it comes to baseball, Baloun follows the Sioux Falls Canaries and the Minnesota Twins. Her own sons and grandsons never played baseball, she said. As farm kids, they were needed at home during the summer.

Baloun will be able to watch Friday’s game; Touchmark plans to show the game on a communal television set. As she watches, she knows she might be the only person paying attention to the patches on the jerseys.

“Once they get there, they’re not going to think, ‘Oh, Mrs. Baloun sewed this patch on,’” she said. “But they can’t play if they don’t have a patch on. I just love living here so much I want to make everybody as happy as I am. Whatever I can do to make people happy. I just want people to be happy like me.”

How to watch

ESPN+ will stream the Little League Midwest Region Tournament game with South Dakota vs. Iowa in Whitestown, Indiana, at 3 p.m. Friday. If the team advances to the 2025 Little League World Series, those games will be played Aug. 13-24 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.