North Notes
Spokane-North Rotary Club
February 6, 2023
 
Calendar: 
 
            Feb. 10 (Friday): Club social at Melinda Keberle’s house for Colin and Kelsey Prestesater baby shower starts at 5:30 p.m.  On tap: pizza and BYOB.
 
            Feb. 13: Noon luncheon at the Bark. Speaker: Todd Woodard, Spokane airports
.
            Feb. 20: No luncheon. Presidents Day holiday.
 
            Feb. 27: Noon luncheon at the Bark. Speaker: Trena Redmond, GU School of Nursing.
 
Announcements:
 
            Ron Noble and Colin Prestesater will represent the club Friday, Feb. 10, at Holmes Elementary School’s “Holmes Heroes” award.  Honorees get a certificate, plaque and T-shirt.
 
            Bill Simer reported that longtime member Art Rudd is recuperating from surgery.  Art sends greetings and hopes to return to the club luncheon meetings, “but not for a while.”
 
Happy Bucks:
 
            Lenore Romney donated $5 to celebrate husband (and fellow club member) Bob’s birthday.
 
            Jerry Logan was happy to celebrate an in-law’s 100th birthday.  Jerry added that there are only about 1,000 centenarians in the U.S. and only of 15 percent are males.
 
Rotary goes to bat in a small D.R. town
           
            Since major league pitchers and catchers report in a few days to start the 2023 training season, the club’s Feb. 6 luncheon was a perfect time to talk about baseball.
 
            And no country talks more about baseball than the Dominican Republic.
 
            The luncheon speaker was Kristin Thompson, who in 2017 co-founded Joshua1: Nine Ministries, an outreach to Fondo Negro, D.R.
 
            Kristin, a banker at Washington Trust, has made several trips to Fondo Negro, which is a bumpy four hour drive west of the D.R. capital, Santo Domingo.
 
            She said in Fondo Negro – “about the size of Deer Park”—many residents are illiterate.  Just two percent can read or write.   She added that in school many boys as young as 11 leave to concentrate on baseball.  Graduation for boys is just 15 percent, while 90 percent of the girls there graduate.  “There are about 750 kids in the community,” Kristin said.
 
            Thus the Joshua1: Nine mission statement is:
 
            “We empower young Dominicans through education, coaching and the love of Christ to impact future generations as leaders in their communities, families and sport.”
 
            Kristin said Joshua1: Nine employs five coaches/mentors and the coaches do “devotionals daily.”
 
            She said club member Colin Prestesater has joined the organization.
 
            Another major challenge for residents in Fondo Negro is clean water.  Kristin said, basically, the town had no running clean water in homes until a filtration plant was built by Rotary, using a $70,000 Rotary International global grant and Rotary clubs like South Spokane – Kristin’s home club – and clubs in Atlanta and in the D.R.
 
            She said local residents, “some using machetes, had to fight off government workers who tried to cut electricity to the plant.”  
 
            Now the filtration plant is humming, has hired seven workers and sells up to 3,000 large bottles of clean water each month at half the price of the commercial vendors, Kristin said.
 
            But baseball and Spanish are the language of Fondo Negro and the entire country.
 
            Kristin said the boys are given meals, uniforms, bats, balls and gloves, but only if they agree to stay in school.
 
            Another challenge is getting professional baseball scouts to Fondo Negro.  While every major league team has a scouting venue in the D.R., very few will travel the long drive from Santo Domingo or other cities, Kristin said.
 
            She said “the big focus for 2023 is literacy and next is school roofs.”
 
M’s have a strong D.R. lineup
           
            So who from the Dominican Republic plays for the Seattle Mariners?
 
            Topping the lineup is star center fielder Julio Rodriguez, from Loma de Cabrera and ace pitcher Luis Castillo, from Bani.
 
            Others on the 40-member team include:
                OF Teoscar Hernadez, Coti.
                RP Diego Castillo, Cabrera.
                RP Prelander Berroa, Santo Domingo, and,
                RP Juan Then, San Frisco de Macors
 
 
The boys, and girls, of baseball
 
            What is it about baseball that is so ingrained about so many lives, in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere around the world?
            A personal remembrance makes my case.
            It’s generational – older folks (including many Rotarians) grew up with baseball. 
            I was born in the first year of the of the WWII Baby Boom --1946.  In Milwaukee, Wisc., this time was before Lombardi’s Packers and Abdul Jabbar’s Bucks.
            We played baseball of one sort or another on sandlots, on concrete streets, on playgrounds, driveways and back yards.  We used baseballs, rubber balls, tennis balls and whiffle balls.  Any number could play, even one-on-one.
            The 1950s were the greatest.  Boston’s Braves moved to Milwaukee.  Almost every baseball youngster wore just one of three numbers – 21,41 and 44.
            No names needed on the back: 21 was pitcher Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews was third baseman wore 41 and of course the right fielder, Henry Aaron, wore 44.
            For decades earlier the World Series consisted on 16 teams in 11 cities. Small world, indeed, but if you behaved during the series – only played on afternoons – during weekdays, Sister whomever would let you listen to the radio for a half hour during school.  Of course we knew she wanted to listen to the games herself.
            That was the kind of baseball glue that stays for a lifetime of memories.
            In those ‘50s you watched Jackie Robinson, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente and other real stars.  A cool $5 would get you a $1 round-trip city bus ride to the stadium, $1.50 for a bleacher seat, and money for soda and popcorn.
            As current fans know now, the prices are a little higher these days.
            While there were no ladies in the majors, Penny Marshall’s “A League of Their Own,” showed the WWII an interesting substitute.
            And every once in a while, Club President Melinda Keberle and I recall how many dozens of major league stadiums she and I have visited.  She’s pretty close to a full roster of teams on her bucket list.
            And her son and she debate the stardom of Aaron vs. Ken Griffey, Mathews vs. Edgar Martinez, or Spahn vs. Randy Johnson.
            So what if the Super Bowl will dominate Sunday’s conversation.  After the Eagles and Chiefs wrap it up, some of us will see if Julio Rodriguez and the M’s can make it to the Big Show.
 --Chuck Rehberg
             
 
             Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink