A Brief History of Our Annual Trip to the Dominican Republic

In 2013 I took my 11 year old son Jack, on a family baseball trip to the Dominican Republic. His brother Luke was 16 and in high school. He came along to help coach.

☝️ Enjoy the slideshow above with photos from our most recent BWB trip to the DR!

The Wilson High School principal was on that trip. In a conversation by the pool of the hotel we were staying in, he floated the idea… “Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring the Wilson baseball team here to experience exposure to this amazing community and play with talented Dominican baseball players?!” A light bulb went on and that dream became a project! I said that if he would give us permission to make it a school trip, I would organize it. Sadly he has since passed but his dream became more than he could have imagined.

I went back to DC to share the idea with the Wilson baseball coaches and the parents – and after 18 months of planning, the first ever Wilson High School baseball trip was ready to happen during the February Presidents Day break  in 2015. 

The  Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception were our primary hosts. We arrived with 15 baseball players and 3 coaches, some of whom had never been outside the USA, and a handful of parents. We were like ‘deer in the headlights’ and the cultural learning curve was steep. At the end of that first year, we knew that this would continue so that each subsequent class of players could experience the same life changing encounters.

Ten years later, we could write a book full of the stories, conversations, moving moments and challenges  that each year held. Every year, lessons were learned, improvements made and goals expanded. 

Now, with head coach Robinson Mateo and ‘Building With Baseball, Inc’, we take 40 players, not just from one school, but players from schools across DC. We partner with multiple organizations that benefit from an army of strong athletes to dig holes for septic tanks, paint orphanages, build houses, and share laughter and connection with DR families who love baseball.