As the Little League World Series entered the final rounds of the competition, teams from all over the world were traveling to Williamsport, Pennsylvania in attempt to be crowned the Little League Baseball champions. For the first time in sixty-six years, a team from Africa qualified. This Ugandan team was overjoyed to be a part of the Little League World series, and were assigned to room with a team from New Castle, Indiana. It was then when the Indiana team realized something about the Ugandan team - they brought hardly anything with them.
The boys from New Castle realized that their Ugandan roommates, and soon to be good friends, had packed next to nothing, some of them not even having a pair of shoes other than their cleats. The Indiana boys were unsettled by this, and told their parents they wanted to help. With the help of the New Castle adults in the area, the team began collecting baseball equipment, clothes, shoes, and other belongings for the team.
The New Castle team's effort to help the Ugandan team was posted on Facebook by one of the teammate's parents, and that's when the collecting of items grew famous. Soon, an over-whelming amount of people were wanting to donate clothes, money, and other supplies for the Ugandan team. The boys quickly began filling bags of items for the team, and it did not take much time to fill up a bag for each of the boys.
According to Fox59.com, New Castle team mom Chastity Durick had a lot to say about her son's team.
"They are just so giving and it is so touching to me that our moms and dads in this community have raised such wonderful boys to be so caring and giving," said Durick.
Durick later expressed her appreciate again, saying that what her son's team did was "much more than just baseball."
Personally, this story really touched me because when a team so close to home does something so admirable, it makes me appreciate where I am from. Though I am not a resident of New Castle, I can vividly imagine my brothers in these boys' shoes doing the same thing. I am proud to say that a team like this exists and that they would be considerate enough to notice and care about the well-being of their Ugandan peers.
Sometimes it is easy to focus on the bad things in life, but there are always happy stories like these that bring hope for generations to come. I can only hope that if I were these boys, I would do the same thing and make a difference in these Ugandan boys' lives. I am positive this is something neither teams will be forgetting anytime soon, and I am thankful for kindness displayed during this competition.
Author's Note: Source: http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-new-castle-little-league-team-helps-ugandan-team-during-tournament-20120816,0,7377112.column
