Fun in the Hot Hot Sun! – Tempe Beach Park Baseball
After reading the illustrative blog post about our ride into Phoenix, you know that we had to cover many miles through the desert in a short amount of time to be able to make it to our event in the Phoenix area. Oh yeah, and we needed a little bit of help from some volunteers too, so we had to find a couple of those as well. On short notice. Time to get excited for the unexpected! Think we can do it???
~~~~Spoiler Alert!! ~~~~
We made it to our day of fun with Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Arizona. We were lucky to join up with an existing program, Beyond School Walls, at Tempe Beach Park and teach hitting fundamentals to kids and volunteers. We met Debbie and Tiff, who helped put the pieces together to ensure a successful day. We met with volunteers to encourage them to keep being that positive influence. We high-fived with kids and shouted HOO-RAHS for every home run they hit. Awesome day!
The Beyond School Walls program is pretty cool. Seriously lucky that we were able to join up with this already existing program. What an opportunity!
For the day, the kids had moved beyond their school walls, (weird, I know), and into the US Airways corporate office. Here they learned about careers that might interest them and the paths that will get them there. Pretty heavy stuff for a 12 yr old kid, but it’s great to keep it fresh in their minds early. Goals are important!
They then moved outside to join up with us. Debbie, program director of Beyond School Walls, had planned out 5 stations for the kids to participate in for the day that were part of a Match Olympics. Each match picked a country that they would like to represent and earn points for their country at each station they participated in. Then, over the course of the next week, Debbie would count the totals as the kids would research more about their country and provide a presentation of a few important aspects of the country! Cool!
We were one of the stations in the Match Olympics. Kids and volunteers only had between 5 and 10 minutes per station, so we had to be quick. We altered our clinic a bit. And, we found a nice bonus! We had three EXCELLENT volunteers for our day at Tempe Beach Park as well. Chelsea, Kim and Kyle came out and helped encourage the kids and hand out dish out some high-fives. Thanks Chelsea, Kim and Kyle! Could NOT have done it without you here in Phoenix.
Kids and volunteers hit soft toss with wiffle balls past a line for a home run. Kids home runs counted as three, adults home runs counted as one and if anyone hit it REALLY far and over the fence… 10 points! Big shot right there.
Additionally, we wanted to create more moments between Big and Little. We had Bigs toss to Littles, then flip it over, and have Littles toss to Bigs. While all this chaos was going in hitter’s row, the B4B team would shag the balls in the outfield and keep the supply running at each batter’s box.
A couple of the Littles had never swung a bat before in their life! It was great to be able to teach them how to line it up, keep their eye on the ball and swing away! The smile on their face after they hit their first home run was worth the whole ride to Phoenix through the desert right there. Well done Littles!
We finished up quickly with a wonderful send-off from Debbie and BBBS-Central Arizona. Thanks everyone that could make it out. You were great! Keep doing what you’re doing!