Dover Sherborn Press

Locals collect baseball equipment for less fortunate athletes
By Meghan Kelly/Correspondent
Tuesday May 01, 2007

SHERBORN - A love of baseball and a desire to help the less fortunate has brought two friends together to collect baseball gloves and equipment to donate to children in the Dominican Republic.

Abbey Randa, 17, of Sherborn, and Phil Lussier, 23, of Medfield, are collecting baseball gloves, bats, helmets and more to donate to the HHS Foundation of New York, a non-profit that “sends new and used baseball equipment, clothing and school materials such as pencils and crayons, to the Dominican Republic so that children can be involved in community activities and stay off the streets,” according to their Web site.

When asked how the two became involved in the project, Randa fully credited Lussier with the idea. “Phil loves baseball and wanted to help kids in the Dominican Republic,” she said.

For his part, Lussier said that he was inspired by his teacher, Meg Randa, who is Abbey’s mother. Meg teaches at The Peace Abbey’s Strawberry Fields Alternative High School in Millis. She also runs The Peace Abbey in Sherborn with her husband, Lewis, who founded the school in 1972.

Lussier said he wanted to help children in the Dominican Republic, where baseball is extremely popular, in hopes of one day helping to produce or inspire a future David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez, his favorite players from his favorite team, the Red Sox. Both players are originally from the Dominican Republic.

The two collected about 25 gloves from the recent Youth Baseball Parade, said Randa. They’ve decided to expand the project to any baseball-related equipment, not just gloves. “People are attached to their gloves,” she explained, and are more likely to donate items such as bats or balls.

Randa said that they will deliver the gloves and other donated equipment in the summer to the foundation, who will in turn bring the equipment to the Dominican Republic. She expressed regret that they were not going to the Dominican Republic themselves to donate the equipment and said that she’d like to visit sometime in the future.

The two have known each other for several years through Randa’s parents. Randa, a horseback-riding enthusiast, has also given Lussier horseback riding lessons in the past.

Randa is a junior at Dover-Sherborn High School, where she plays lacrosse.

Anyone interested in donating gloves or other baseball equipment can deliver them to the collection bin in the Dover-Sherborn Middle School lobby. The collection will end on June 1.