Every now and then, we have birthday parties on the baseball field! Last week, it was A’s turn to have a surprise party.
His birthday was during the week, but for some reason he told me it was Saturday. So I arrived on Saturday armed with a cake (covered in sprinkles, of course), much to his delight and surprise!
We also had fun games, since Coach Tom had recently ordered some new toys that had just arrived! Our favorite was this cool game– you have to maneuver a wire hook over a metal contraption without touching the metal at all.
Lisa brought food, too! She made spider spaghetti for the kids.
These are the kind of days I’ll never forget. What a wonderful life this is!
When a little league team from the Sint Maarten, Dutch Caribbean (SXM) visits Canada, what do they do? They play hard, of course. I’m so proud of our team, The Daily Herald. They consisted of five 14 or 15-year-olds, five 9 to 11-year-olds, and a six year old. They faced a team of 14 and 15-year-olds without a single qualm, and they dominated on the field. Someday, you might see some of these in the major leagues! Here’s Little King, on of our 10-year-olds, reporting on his team’s game.
Today we went to a baseball game, The Daily Herald vs. Blue Jays- St. Catherines.
1st batter: Triston. Walk.
Triston up at bat
2nd batter, Little King, walked.
Puppy had no fear. He even made it to first base.
3rd batter Tre hit a single.
Adonis after scoring a run
4th batter Big King hit the two runs batted in.
“I got two first base, two second base, third, and we won.” Adonis, 12
Skijlaar ready at first
When we got three outs, Triston was the starting pitcher. Little King was the catcher.
“I went 2 for 2 with 2 singles.” -Tre, 14
Lewis on the mound
The ball one could have passed, but I blocked it.
“I was left outfield and the team that we played never hit a pop fly so I didn’t do much.” Theo, 14
Little King catching
A boy hit the ball. Herald make an error. He ran to second base after the next batter came to bat.
“We had so much fun.” Triston, 9
Big King in the infield
The boy on second, he stoled 3rd. I got the ball and I throw one time.
Zack watches his teammate slide into home
We win St. Catherines Blue Jays 11-7.
SXM proud.
Yes, these boys certainly did make SXM proud! Way to represent your country, team. It’s not so much that they won– it’s the hard work they put in and the courage it takes to go up against bigger kids. It’s the good sportsmanship, the encouragement, and the confidence. This team makes me proud all the time! I’m thankful for them and glad I get to be one of their coaches.
My favorite breed of dog is rescued. There is no shortage of rescue dogs on the island of Saint Martin! Meet Kito, Rosie, and Herald, three island mutts who joined the Daily Herald Little League team in the dugout today.
Kito is my puppy. She’s eight months old, and we got her from a shelter on the French side of the island. She knows how to sit, stay, come, and roll over, among other things. She is also learning yoga moves. So far we have “downward dog” and that’s about it. She gives high-fives to the kids in return for cookies.
Rosie is the team mascot. She belongs to Coach Tom and Lisa. Some of the boys on the team found Rosie on the field a couple years ago. Lisa wrote a book about it and is trying to get it published. Rosie’s special trick is standing on her back legs and spinning around. She’s the kids’ favorite!
Herald is the newest member of the team. He’s a six-week old puppy that one our families found near the stadium. He has five or six siblings living in the dump, so if you really like this little guy, you could probably find one just like him in the Philipsburg dump. Jaeda’s family named him “Matti,” which is Dutch for “friend.” Coach renamed him Herald after the team, which is sponsored by The Daily Herald. Coach also has Herald’s brother Tommy, who Aloyel found. Tommy is available for adoption.
On Saturdays, we always bring our dogs to baseball practice. Today was the day of the all-star game, and a lot of our team were selected for the game! We coaches expected to watch this one from the stands, but we were needed to run the game. So Coach Tom umpired and the rest of us packed in the dugout with the kids and the dogs to take care of stats.
The dugout is always a pretty loud and hectic, and the presence of three dogs only added to the craziness! We always have fun, though, and the dogs added to that, too.
Our kids team actually ended up winning the all-star game! They were pretty thrilled. It made up for not making it into the championship game. You seem, our kids are mostly ten and under, and they play in the ten-to-twelve-year-old league. After all those games playing against big kids, they were more than ready to take on kids their own age. Our best pitcher is nine and regularly strikes out twelve-year-olds.
The kids said that Herald was their good-luck charm.
Do you love rescue dogs, too? Anywhere you go, puppies need homes. In Saint Martin, there are many dogs who need families! Adopt your own good luck charm from one of the shelters, or rescue a puppy from the dump. You won’t regret saving your little buddy!
What do you do when you have twelve kids who love trains but have never seen a real one? You take them on a train ride, of course!
The island of Saint Martin doesn’t have a train, but the kids from Player Development SXM know a lot about them anyway. Each day, these boys and girls gather on the little league field to practice for baseball games and improve their academic skills. Many days, my friends and I join them to help with reading and math or coaching.
When practice and homework is done, the kids run inside the repurposed shipping container that serves as their clubhouse to play with their favorite toy: the model train set.
The kids are excited, because this summer, they get to ride a real train. In August, they’ll be packing their bags for the long trip to Toronto, where many dreams will come true. They get to watch a Blue Jays game, see Niagara falls, play against a Canadian little league team, and ride a real train for the first time. For their homework, some of the kids have written about their hopes for the upcoming adventure:
For many of the kids, this will be their first time off the 37 square-mile island.
Many of the kids dream of being a pro ball player, and this will be the first time they get to witness a major-league game.
This is a really big deal for them.
The logo for the team is, of course, a train. Coach Tom asked me to design it for the team, and my friend Andrea made it into a t-shirt for the kids to wear during the trip.
Like it? You can actually buy one for yourself, or send one to one of our kids! All the proceeds of the purchase also go toward the kids’ plane tickets. Make a difference for these kids. Click here!
We’re bound for Canada! But first, we’re participating in Art in the Park right here at home. One of my favorite memories of my childhood hometown is Art in the Park. Flagstaff, Arizona held it this festival annually on the lawn of the library. It’s something I missed when we moved to Phoenix. Now that we live in Sint Maarten, Art in the Park is back on the agenda!
Some of my paintings that will be for sale at Art in the Park
The best of SXM Art in the Park for me is that I get to be a part of a booth this time. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I volunteer with a local Little League team that incorporates academics into its daily program. This summer, we all get to take a trip to Canada to watch the Blue Jays play! The Rotary Club is sponsoring the trip, but of course we are teaching the boys responsibility by having them fund-raise as well.
The kids have been working on their merchandise for a long time. Coach Tom and his wife, Lisa, came up with some great ideas. The team has a rock tumbler, and they’ve polished a couple hundred rocks over the last few months. We’ll put magnets on these and sell them for a few dollars. The kids are also making lanterns with a Canadian maple leaf on the front. I’ll be contributing some of my paintings to the fundraiser, as well.
K. shows off one of her favorite rocks
Here’s how we made the rock magnets:
The kids ran around the baseball field, gathering various little rocks.
2. The first week, Tom tumbled the rocks with some abrasive. They came out clean, but still pretty rough. The kids washed all the gritty gray liquid off and Tom added new abrasive.
3. The second week and third weeks, the rocks were tumbled again.
A. found an amethyst!
4. The fourth week was the last week of tumbling. This kids washed them off and shined them. We put a little lacquer on them to make them even prettier.
5. Finally, we glued the magnets on the back. They’re ready to add some natural beauty to your fridge!
Can you identify the igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks? Little K. can!
The older boys worked with volunteers to drill holes in coffee cans for the lanterns. Then everyone had a chance to paint the leaves Canada red.
Drilling..
Drilling…
Making a handle…
Painting!
Stacey and I are working on an informational display for the festival, too. All the kids and volunteers traced their hands on the background.
If you’re on Saint Martin, come visit us this Sunday (February 14) at Emilio Wilson Park in Cul de Sac between 10 and 4:30! Just head to Philipsburg, take the round-a-bout north instead of heading east to Cost-U-Less, and look for the park on your left a little past the baseball field. Let’s send these kids to Canada!
One of our boys and Fred, a real, live Canadian! Also, note volunteer Andrea’s enthusiasm in the background. We have fun here.
Thanks to Stacey and Tom for providing the pictures for this post!
What do you get when you combine packed buses, hundreds of purple t-shirts, smiling faces, and a giant rain storm? No, not the first day of your third-grade church camp– but good guess. You get American University of the Caribbean’s 2015 Community Action Day!
An AUC Student Tutors in Reading
I love organized service projects. Our undergrad university put on a day of outreach each spring, and all the students got a day off classes to do yard work for the elderly, paint over graffiti, etc. I was happy to find out that AUC does essentially the same thing, although a day off school is not an option here. The event organizers offered about two dozen different CAD activities, and students and campus groups could sign up for whatever they choose. Ben and I decided to go help with the Little League Player Development Program, since I already volunteer with this organization.
Coach Tom Shows Us the Science Room
We met our group at AUC and took a bus over to the baseball field. Not too many kids had arrived before us, so Coach Tom gave us a tour of the team’s clubhouse. The clubhouse is a wonderful place. It’s made up of three shipping containers– one filled with science stuff, one dedicated to reading, and one full of exercise equipment. Every week day and Saturday, the kids come to the clubhouse for tutoring and baseball practice. Coach Tom and his wife, Lisa, along with whoever shows up to volunteer, help the kids with math and reading. This kids are rewarded with baseball cards and time to play with toy trains and the science projects.
Ben and His Classmates Tutor Kids
About 25 kids showed up on Saturday, and all the volunteers sat down with a child or two to help with reading. As they finished, kids and AUC students moved to the field to practice baseball.
A Beautiful Day for Baseball
In the Caribbean, storms rise up out of nowhere and drench the earth with driving rain. It’s rainy season now, so it was not really a surprise when the heavens opened and poured the waters of all the seven seas upon us! We all congregated under tarps and into the containers to wait out the rain.
Even AUC Professors get Involved
When the rain let up a little bit, Lisa drove Ben and I next door to the local university, where the Migratory Bird Festival was being held. She went back for a few kids at a time when the weather finally cleared. We colored some pictures of birds, learned about their feeding habits, and adopted a Gaiac tree to raise. Since Sint Maarten has been in a drought this year, there was an exhibit on drought and how it affects the birds–ironically, it was partially damaged by the rain and had to be moved inside!
Raising and Planting A Gaiac Tree Helps the Ecosystem ThriveOne of the Kids Discovers Pond Life
At noon, we walked the kids back to the baseball field. Most of the other volunteers were playing catch with the kids. We said goodbye to everyone from the team and piled into the bus to head back to Cupecoy. It had been a great morning.
His birthday was during the week, but for some reason he told me it was Saturday. So I arrived on Saturday armed with a cake (covered in sprinkles, of course), much to his delight and surprise! 
