Fairfield American Little League

20

May, 2019

FALL Graduate Leads By Example; Gives Back To Community

This article was originally published on April 17, 2018 prior to last spring season. Due to the overwhelming response from the FALL community last year, we will hold another equipment donation drive this Memorial Day at Mill Hill during the day-long All Star Extravaganza! There will be a clearly-marked area on the first base side to drop off any gently-used equipment your player has grown out of. Bats, helmets, gloves, those softees that seem to be in your baseball bucket forever, or catching equipment...bring it to Mill Hill and help ensure it continues to provide hours and hours of joy to another young baseball player.

___

When Griffin Dodder thought about completing a school assignment to spearhead a community service project, his mind went to baseball. But he wasn’t thinking about the Los Angeles Dodgers or even his own experience as a member of the Fairfield American 12 year old district team that was just coming off their appearance at the Little League World Series. Griffin thought about the opportunities he had to enjoy the game of baseball and recognized that not everyone is as fortunate.

So he got to work.

Griffin heard about a terrific community organization, the Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders, known simply as “Caribe.” Caribe uses three platforms, sports, education and community to provide enriching programs to over 600 youth ages 5 to 18 enabling them to prosper into leaders. But they don’t always have as much equipment as they need for all of these programs.

The location and mission of Caribe spoke to the exact ideas Griffin had about helping. “I know some kids are not fortunate enough to obtain quality bats, gloves and other sports equipment that help to learn and play the game. I wanted to give back to others in a community who may not have the same opportunities that Fairfield has,” Griffin said about the origins of his idea to gather some of his equipment and collect donations from others to deliver to Caribe.

Griffin with Willie Cora, Caribe's head of sports programs

As Fairfield American Little League gets set to start the 2018 season, we want to acknowledge Griffin’s impressive work and support his effort by holding an equipment drive at the Opening Day Ceremony this Saturday, April 21 at Mill Hill and donating all of the equipment to Caribe. Please consider donating any gently used baseball gloves, bats, batting gloves, helmets, catcher’s gear or cleats. We will have a section marked at Mill Hill throughout the entire day on Saturday, April 21, for you to place the equipment. (Griffin is pictured to your right with Willie Cora, head of Caribe's sports programs.)

There was another important connection between Caribe and Griffin’s experiences as a Fairfield American player. Caribe has many ties to the Latin American community within Bridgeport, including a strong presence at the annual Puerto Rican Day parade. This past September, Caribe provided support in response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria that devastated parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. While in Williamsport to compete in the Little League World Series, Griffin befriended many of the players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

“We hung out with them playing ping pong, arcade games and trading pins,” Griffin said, adding that in 2017 technology can help knock down some barriers. “Using Spanish with Google Translator helped.”

Griffin is still using technology to stay in touch with the friends he made in Williamsport. “We are still connected through social media, mostly Instagram, with players from all over. From Latin America and the Caribbean. Also Mid-Atlantic (Jackson, New Jersey), NorthWest (Walla Walla, Washington), SouthEast (Greenville, North Carolina).”

Given the experiences his time in Williamsport provided Griffin, it’s no surprise he goes to one specific moment when asked for his best memory of the summer. The moment Tyler Bauer threw the final strike at New England Regional Championship in Bristol. “We knew we were heading to Williamsport. We all screamed for a long time saying ‘We're going! We're going!’”

As Griffin leaves Fairfield American behind, he is still out on the baseball field every chance he gets to work toward his goal of playing in college. We think any college would be lucky to have his combination of his baseball ability and leadership qualities!

And to the boys and girls who will be out on Riverfield, Gould, Mill Hill and Osborn every weekend this spring, Griffin has an important message.

“Try your best and never give up. We did not have the best record during our 9's 10's and 11's years but we came out clutch our 12 year and gave it our best to make it to Williamsport. It is possible!”

On behalf of our entire league, we’d like to thank Griffin for his great community service work and important example he is setting for our young players. We hope you will consider contributing to our equipment drive this Saturday, April 21 at Mill Hill.

Website Manager

Fairfield American Little League

News Detail

20

May, 2019

FALL Graduate Leads By Example; Gives Back To Community

Site Links

Contact Us

Fairfield American Little League