Baseball Team Does Service Project in DR

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BYU baseball team visits Dominican Republic

The BYU players passed out hygiene kits, copies of El Libro de Mormon (the Book of Mormon), rice, beans, and sanitation and medical supplies at the Los Tocones sugar cane village outside the city of Higüey. The BYU team split into groups and delivered to each of the 128 dwellings one bag of food, which will last two to three weeks and six hygiene kits.

The Utah-based Five Star Legacy Foundation organized the day of service in the middle of the four days of baseball competition. At Higüey, the Cougars visited an inner-city school in a dangerous part of town with first-to-eighth grade children.

The players split into groups and spent time with each classroom. The students had prepared letters for pen pals at a school in Utah and gave them to the team to take back. The players spoke with the children about the importance of school and staying away from violence. Some players even sang and danced with their classroom of children. It was a mob scene when the BYU team left the school because the children didn't want to see the players leave.

In Higüey the BYU players conducted a baseball clinic for more than 200 local children. Sophomore infielder Bret Lopez, one of nine Spanish-speaking players on the team, commented on the clinic: "They have a lot of raw talent, but leave out a lot of the fundamentals. We taught them some discipline and fundamentals of baseball that will take them to the next level."

The clinic ended by providing bags of gear to 24 youth baseball teams in the area. Several crates of those donated items were a result of an Eagle Scout project by Kayce Spencer of the Orem (Utah) Canyon View 1st Ward in cooperation with Orem Youth Baseball, as well as individuals who donated equipment at BYU camps.

Some of that equipment was also distributed at an orphanage in San Pedro de Macoris, where the Cougars spent one-on-one time with about 150 children ranging in ages from 3-18. The team organized a few baseball activities, played pick-up soccer, and spent time with each of them individually.

Let an old man wax philosophical, but service to others is what life is all about.