Position: First Base/Pitcher
Hometown: Florence, South Carolina
Grad Year: 2027
So far, this trip to the Dominican Republic has been nothing short of a breathtaking blessing that I am so thankful to get to experience with my brothers. I have never been out of the United States before so the second that I stepped out of the airport in Punta Cana I was mesmerized by the pure beauty of the DR. The villa at Casa de Campo was absolutely stunning with a nice pool and pretty backyard full of coconut trees. Going to the girl’s orphanage will be a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life. I can’t even begin to put into words how blessed I felt to get to go and spend time with those awesome girls. We played kickball and volleyball which was so much fun because do not be fooled; those girls play hard. I enjoyed being able to have thorough conversations with some of the girls via a translator about life in the states and life for them here in the Dominican. It was awesome to get to learn about them and their culture. The best part about getting to hang out with them girls was seeing how grateful and happy they were for how little that they really had. Kingsmen coming to spend the day with them might have seemed like a small gesture to us but to them it meant the world. It was really cool to get to talk to some of the girls about God and it was even cooler to see that some of them already knew God pretty well. That made my heart happy. Church in the DR is like nothing I have even been to before in my life. I learned that their services aren’t just an hour long like it is in the states, it ran for about 2 hours and was full of angelic singing, dancing, and a great word from the pastor about what true love really is. Similar to the orphanage, it was really nice to see the church makes so much out of so little. It was a very small church with no AC and plastic chairs but the energy inside of that building was priceless. It was amazing to see how strong the community in that church was. Truly amazing. Overall, I feel truly blessed to be on this trip and I can’t wait for what else there is to come. Thank you Coach Hudak and thank you Kingsmen baseball for a trip that I will never forget.
