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Colleen Birner and her husband, Evan Fitzgerald, are about halfway through a Peace Corps stint in Rio Limpio teaching better agriculture practices and working with a youth group
Colleen Birner and her husband, Evan Fitzgerald, are about halfway through a Peace Corps stint in Rio Limpio teaching better agriculture practices and working with a youth group
The garage of Brookfield residents Dot and Len Birner is stuffed with dozens of boxes of baseball equipment destined for a poor mountain village called Rio Limpio in the Dominican Republic. The goods - bats, balls, gloves, uniforms, cleats, chest protectors, masks, batting helmets, uniforms - were donated by students at Wisconsin Hills Middle School and the Elmbrook Little League organization.
The Birners' daughter, Colleen Birner, and her husband, Evan Fitzgerald, are about halfway through a Peace Corps stint in Rio Limpio. While their main job is teaching better agriculture practices, they've also worked with a youth group.
In letters to the Birners, they've described how the young people have virtually no outlets for their interests in this dirt-poor place. Some simply leave, dropping out of school and heading to coffee plantations or factories in cities to work. Others turn to more destructive behavior - drugs and sex, advancing the spread of AIDS, a severe problem in the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti.
When Jeff Stark, Colleen Birner's former Elmbrook middle school Spanish teacher and student government adviser, learned about her Peace Corps assignment, he asked her for ideas that would connect students to a good cause.
The answer was baseball. Baseball is a passion in the Dominican Republic, but most children never see its baseball academies, which cater to future star material. Children in Colleen Birner's village have only stones, sticks and cardboard gloves with which to play.
She asked for enough to equip a team. The donors gave enough to equip a league.
"We're picturing a Little League all the way up and down the mountain," Dot Birner said. "It fits the Peace Corps mission - self-sustaining programs and a peaceful connection across cultures. It's a connection between young people."
The Birners plan to visit Colleen and Evan in a couple weeks, and they'll carry a suitcase full of baseball equipment along. The real problem, though, is finding the money to ship the rest.
Wisconsin Hills Middle School students have already earmarked a January fund-raiser to help out. Dot Birner is also contacting organizations such as the Brewers and the Madison chapter of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
Wouldn't it be something if one of those home-grown and well-paid baseball pros so worshipped in the Dominican Republic covered the tab?
Laurel Walker's column usually appears in the Waukesha section. Call her at (262) 650-3183 or e-mail lwalker@journalsentinel.com.