A Letter From Our President
As many of you know, for the last 10 years I have helped to lead a program that takes high school baseball players from Washington DC public schools to the Dominican Republic to play baseball and participate in community service projects. Some of you have generously donated when my sons Luke and Jack were attending the trip. Now they are grown up, and the trip continues.
Over those ten years, the lives of hundreds of students and coaches have been transformed by the extraordinary experience of building friendships with children and baseball players from a culture so very different from their own.
At the end of the last game of the week, it's a moving thing to see our players taking off their cleats, sunglasses, hats and hugging their friends with a new perspective on life and deep gratitude. For all that they are able to give away, for all the homes they help build, for all the orphanage rooms they paint – what they receive more than equals all of it. It is truly a two-way, mutually beneficial endeavor.
Each year before the trip, the players collect baseball equipment and uniforms from around DC, including from the Washington Nationals, and take 50 suitcases full of donations! In addition, we have been able to raise money to support the DR charitable organizations that host us, including the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception; the DR activities of the Foundation for Peace, which itself includes the House of Light Disabled Orphanage in Santo Domingo and a new Women's Collective that teaches skills and offers micro-loans to women in rural communities to start their own small businesses; the Cachena Batey and other rural batey communities. A few years ago, we provided two young women from Consuelo full funding of medical school expenses. Now these women are medical doctors and are serving the needs of their communities.
For the last 2 years we have also taken players from DC schools across the city, not just our own. But this means raising substantial amounts of money to pay for their expenses as well as the money we donate in the DR.
This coming February, we are traveling to the DR with 40 players for 7 days and we hope to raise as much support as possible for player scholarships, building and project supplies and donations to our partners in the DR. Our trip is approved by DCPS and organized by Building With Baseball, Inc., a non-profit organization based in DC (Tax ID #99-4675089).
In these days of political upheaval and a sense of helplessness, I have been challenged to “do what is mine to do” and to do what I can in my corner to influence the young people who will be our future leaders. If you would like to join me as you consider your year end donations, our players and friends in the Dominican Republic will be so grateful.