Can You Help?

[AlterEgo]

Twelve boxes and one 55 gallon drum are packed and ready to go.  Congrats to DR1, as several generous members contributed towards the shipping.  Thank you all, you know who you are (some wish to remain anonymous).

 Article in today’s paper, DR1 received a mention  http://www.shorenewstoday.com/sport...l&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

 

[Abuela]

Fantastic results! Your grandchildren are adorable! 

 

[AlterEgo]

Yesterday we shipped 14 boxes and a 55 gallon drum, I want to thank everyone who contributed towards the shipping bill.

A portion of the shipment will be going to Jamao through Lindsey Kaufman’s Strength for the Journey program. We have sites around San Cristobal province and in Ocoa where equipment will be distributed.

If anyone has contacts in DR’s kid’s baseball, or know of a team who could use equipment, please send me a private message.

   

 

[AlterEgo]

Thought some of you might like to see photos of the baseball equipment being distributed. I think the locations match the photos.

 Playa Najayo


Miracielo
 

Duveaux


Jamao


Yaguate


Palenque 


Esperanza 

 

[AlterEgo]

Not sure why Palenque pic is upside down  The coach there was a former catcher with the San Diego Padres, the little guy is his son. Their practice field is an empty lot that they share with goats and cows. 

We met the nicest people, the coaches were all so dedicated and appreciative. In Esperanza coach was the woman in photo. We were blessed by all of them, one coach choked up and said we didn’t know what a difference we’d made. 

One kid touched my heart. JDJones gave us a left handed glove, and first couple of places there were no lefties. By the time we reached Duveaux, we were completely out of gloves. I asked if anyone was left handed, and in a group of about 25 kids they all pointed to one boy. I told him it was his lucky day, and handed him the glove. The joy in his face!  As we left about 30 minutes later, I noticed him sitting alone just staring at his new glove in awe 

 

[irishpaddy]

Grace was this a once off or are you going to try it again

 

[AlterEgo]

Grace was this a once off or are you going to try it again

It’s taken on a life of its own. A cousin who saw my Facebook photos jumped on the wagon and started collecting baseball equipment (Princeton area), and people have been delivering bats, balls, gloves, cleats, helmets, even actual bases to her. She has dozens of baseball pants and someone donated a stack of new baseball shirts. Taking over her basement, haha. 

There’s so much need. We could have given away 1OX what we had, we brought a set amount to each stop and sometimes there were kids who received nothing. No one complained, they lined up and waited patiently, without exception. We hope to have more gloves next time. That’s what they all were looking for, and I’ll bet there are a LOT of them gathering dust in closets across America. 



Our son is going to create a website just for this and we’re considering applying for 501C3 status to make donations tax deductible. 

 

[AlterEgo]

Okay DR1ers, it’s that time again.

We’ve started packing the boxes of baseball equipment and clothing. Some great donations this year, including new shirts and caps for a couple of teams, baseball pants, tubs full of cleats, gloves, bats, batting helmets, a set of bases, you name it, we have it. Today we bought two dozen new baseball hats at the flea market. One local team of 12 year olds are all participating, all 11 boys are donating last year’s equipment bag, and are filling them with random baseball stuff. Those all match, so they will go to one lucky team. Lots of donated new baseball shirts from a tournament that was canceled. One little 7 year old in Princeton, NJ heard about what we’re doing, and he told his mother he didn’t want gifts for his birthday, he wanted family and friends to donate to us so we could buy more equipment, and he raised over $500. We’ll be buying gloves with most of that, as that’s what they’re desperate for.

We will arrive right after the new year, so we will ship everything in early December. The shipper has given us the same $65per box price ( it’s normally $75).

So, here I am, hat in hand again, asking if any of you good people of DR1 would like to sponsor shipping cost of a box (or more!). You can mail me a check (made out in the shipper’s name if you prefer), or PayPal works too.

As we did last year, photos of the distributions will follow. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

 

[pularvik]

Pm me for how to pay for 2 boxes. Thanks for doing this!

 

[JD Jones]

I'm in for 2 boxes. Let me know when.

 

[AlterEgo]

The local Kiwanis chapter contacted me about speaking at their next meeting about this project. An email was sent to all their members about the upcoming meeting, and about DR and baseball. The next morning we received a call from a member who coaches and is active in their town baseball board. We go tomorrow to pick up what he has......and he told us to bring a pickup truck.

Other members are bringing more to the luncheon.

More shipping boxes have been ordered, this is a good thing!

We’ve had a great response from DR1 members, 8 boxes have been paid for, and 2 more promised. We anticipate having 18-20 boxes shipped, so if you can sponsor a box or more, let me know. Thanks from us, and the boys of DR.

 

[AlterEgo]

We went to pickup the baseball equipment on Wednesday, almost filled the truck bed.

As an aside..... we have two vehicles here, a Lexus RX350 and a Toyota Tundra. The Tundra is his, he bought it last January and I’ve never gotten into it. When we go out together, he drives the Lexus. For the past 40 years, there has not been a Latin radio station here, closest in Philly. He has an assortment of Dominican CDs that he’s kept in his vehicles over the years. Quite by accident, while flipping through radio stations in the house, I heard bachata. All excited, I told him there is now a local station that only plays Spanish music, merengues, bachatas, salsa, etc (and a little too much Mexican music ). Happy for him, I tell him the station, and I change my favorite station in the Lexus to the Spanish one. It’s all we’ve listened to for months. Okay. Wednesday I get into the truck, and off we go. I look suspiciously at the radio, it’s not the Spanish station. I thought maybe he couldn’t find it, or forgot the number. So I asked why he didn’t have the Spanish station on, ready to tune it in for him. Without missing a beat, he tells me he prefers this station, it plays oldies that he likes. Hahaha! Well shut my mouth.

The Lexus is now tuned to my favorite station again.

 

[keepcoming]

Sent you a PM

 

[keepcoming]

LOL...my spouse is the same way..likes the oldies. I have Sirius in my car, always on the Latin station. He says he likes the memories of the oldies. In DR though he does play the oldies, Latin oldies. Maybe for another thread..lol

 

[AlterEgo]

18 boxes of baseball equipment and other items to be donated in the DR are packed and ready for the truck to pickup tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who donated equipment or cash towards buying equipment and shipping costs. You’re making a big difference in many lives.

Looking forward to parking my car in the garage again

 

[AlterEgo]

We had a great success distributing the baseball equipment this year, to literally over 200 boys. This year we outfitted boys from Rancho el Medio, Carlos Pinto, Barahona, Jamao, Miracielo and Nigua. We tried something new this year, and it worked great! I brought down a big roll of double tickets, the kind they use for 50/50 raffles. Each boy received a ticket, and then I pulled numbers randomly from a bag. This way everyone had the same chance at picking first/early, and it was cute to see how excited they were while waiting and when their number was called.

This year we had so much more to give out. In addition to lots of donated used equipment and clothing, a client of our son donated 10 brand new Wilson gloves. (When we got those, the idea of using the tickets came to mind, and we split the new gloves up between the different groups). We probably had 75-100 gloves, at least 200 bats, about 75 pairs of cleats, helmets, equipment bags, batting gloves, baseball pants, jerseys, socks, you name it, we had it. As we did in the past, we gave everything directly to the kids, no middle men. Here are some random photos.

Those of you who helped pay for the shipping, THANK YOU! We couldn’t have done it without your help.

We arrived home last night in NJ, and laughed when we found two large bags on our porch. You guessed it, baseball equipment for next shipment.


Lining up to get their tickets in Miracielo


So hard to choose what to pick!


Some of the boys from Miracielo, the rest were already back on the field


Boys from Carlos Pinto waiting their turn


Boys from Carlos Pinto


Boys from Rancho el Medio


This boy missed coming with his team, so his grandma brought him to our house, he left very happy (so did abuela)


These three came by bus from Barahona to our house, they left at 4 a.m. and arrived about 11. We made the trip worth their while, outfitted the boy completely, gave his father softball bat and glove, and sent the coach with a bag full with catchers gear, balls, etc.


Volunteers ready to help distribute in Jamao. We did this giveaways through
Lindsey Kaufman’s Strength for the Journey


Waiting their turn in Jamao


The boys from Jamao and Lindsey

 

[dulce]

Fantastic job AE and all who contributed.
Thank you

 

[AlterEgo]

It’s that time of year again. Our third annual baseball giveaways. We’ve been buying, accepting donations and packing since April. In addition to the normal baseball equipment, we got a good deal on about 60 - 70 new leather batting gloves, new stirrup socks, and wooden bats (in addition to the metal ones).

In addition to the packed boxes, we have four 55 gallon drums/tanques packed; we needed them for the longer bats that didn’t fit in the 28” boxes. We’re going to have to buy at least one more drum, because a few more long bats were donated. We were at a garage sale, and the guy had a bunch of them laying down, and I asked how much they were. He wanted to know which one I was interested in, and when I said it depended on the cost because we give them away in DR..... well, believe it or not, he insisted in giving them all to us for free! People like him have restored my faith in humanity.

If anyone would like to contribute towards the shipping, or towards buying equipment, or has equipment to donate, let me know. Boxes are $65 and drums $115 to ship (via mundanza).

Thanks in advance

 

[JD Jones]

It’s that time of year again. Our third annual baseball giveaways. We’ve been buying, accepting donations and packing since April. In addition to the normal baseball equipment, we got a good deal on about 60 - 70 new leather batting gloves, new stirrup socks, and wooden bats (in addition to the metal ones).

In addition to the packed boxes, we have four 55 gallon drums/tanques packed; we needed them for the longer bats that didn’t fit in the 28” boxes. We’re going to have to buy at least one more drum, because a few more long bats were donated. We were at a garage sale, and the guy had a bunch of them laying down, and I asked how much they were. He wanted to know which one I was interested in, and when I said it depended on the cost because we give them away in DR..... well, believe it or not, he insisted in giving them all to us for free! People like him have restored my faith in humanity.

If anyone would like to contribute towards the shipping, or towards buying equipment, or has equipment to donate, let me know. Boxes are $65 and drums $115 to ship (via mundanza).

Thanks in advance

I'm good for a drum AE. Let me know how to pay.

 

[Garyexpat]

It’s that time of year again. Our third annual baseball giveaways. We’ve been buying, accepting donations and packing since April. In addition to the normal baseball equipment, we got a good deal on about 60 - 70 new leather batting gloves, new stirrup socks, and wooden bats (in addition to the metal ones).

In addition to the packed boxes, we have four 55 gallon drums/tanques packed; we needed them for the longer bats that didn’t fit in the 28” boxes. We’re going to have to buy at least one more drum, because a few more long bats were donated. We were at a garage sale, and the guy had a bunch of them laying down, and I asked how much they were. He wanted to know which one I was interested in, and when I said it depended on the cost because we give them away in DR..... well, believe it or not, he insisted in giving them all to us for free! People like him have restored my faith in humanity.

If anyone would like to contribute towards the shipping, or towards buying equipment, or has equipment to donate, let me know. Boxes are $65 and drums $115 to ship (via mundanza).

Thanks in advance

Count me in for a drum. Can I pay via paypal?? I will also get in touch with a guy I know that couches some kids. Last I knew he was in Licey but he may have gone back up to Monti Cristi.