Creating Spaces where People Belong in Life & Sport

And, and that is a great segue to community and leadership.

Um-

Yeah.

Do you wanna, do you wanna hear about the baseball program?

Yeah.

Okay.

So, yes.

Please.

Okay.

So what has, what ex- what have you learned, um, through, uh, running the youth baseball program for over 30 years? Um, I know you talk a lot about giving the, um, the s- the students that grad- that have graduated from playing opportunities to be leaders.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, tell us, um, your why did you start it, and, um, tell us about-

Okay

... how leadership has, um, allowed you to build this incredible community of baseball players.

So the Thunder Beach baseball, the, the backstory is it began in 1992, the year after I was president of, of Beach Association.

Mm.

And, um, that year, as with every year at Thunder Beach, there's always something you didn't see coming.

And we had quite a heated controversy about who owns the waterfront-

Mm

... who owns the back.

Can the back cottages use it? Right of ways, get off my beach, this and that.

Mm.

And I was quite dismayed, and we had, uh, many meetings, and I was trying to bring the groups together.

And, uh, at the end of that year we had a bit of a, uh, the temperature went down on the issue, but I thought to myself, "This will not be solved overnight." And I had this idea of creating a baseball league where kids from all over the beach, back cottages, front cottages, neighborhoods behind the back cottages, east beach, west beach, would come together for this baseball program.

And the idea was that we would build community so that we would have teams, and we'd draft them, not according to their ability or their location, but just randomly somewhat.

And, and that is a great segue to community and leadership.

Um-

Yeah.

Do you wanna, do you wanna hear about the baseball program?

Yeah.

Okay.

So, yes.

Please.

Okay.

So what has, what ex- what have you learned, um, through, uh, running the youth baseball program for over 30 years? Um, I know you talk a lot about giving the, um, the s- the students that grad- that have graduated from playing opportunities to be leaders.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, tell us, um, your why did you start it, and, um, tell us about-

Okay

... how leadership has, um, allowed you to build this incredible community of baseball players.

So the Thunder Beach baseball, the, the backstory is it began in 1992, the year after I was president of, of Beach Association.

Mm.

And, um, that year, as with every year at Thunder Beach, there's always something you didn't see coming.

And we had quite a heated controversy about who owns the waterfront-

Mm

... who owns the back.

Can the back cottages use it? Right of ways, get off my beach, this and that.

Mm.

And I was quite dismayed, and we had, uh, many meetings, and I was trying to bring the groups together.

And, uh, at the end of that year we had a bit of a, uh, the temperature went down on the issue, but I thought to myself, "This will not be solved overnight." And I had this idea of creating a baseball league where kids from all over the beach, back cottages, front cottages, neighborhoods behind the back cottages, east beach, west beach, would come together for this baseball program.

And the idea was that we would build community so that we would have teams, and we'd draft them, not according to their ability or their location, but just randomly somewhat.