Spring Project

So for my Spring Project I started a Primary Little League. I was not happy with the kids not growing up with stuff like this and when I read the V.T. message for April it came to me. Basically it said that if were not happy with what is going on around us it is up to us to change it and make it better. So that is what I did. The Stake President came to our house to visit our family for ward conference and so I took that as an opportunity to see if I put some teams together could I use the Stake Ball Fields? He was happy about the idea and told me to run it through the Stake Primary. So that is what I did.

So we didn't have much time before the heat so I had to move fast. I gave myself two weeks to get the whole thing organized and ready to start practices and games. In the beginning it was basically me but I quickly got help. This ended up being our committee, I guess you could say. The guy (Bro. Jason Fackrell) is the High Councilman over the primary that saved us in that he was a baseball nut so he was the game side of the program which I knew nothing about. The ladies in the orange, purple and red are the Stake Primary Presidency. The orange cutie is the President (Sis. Kathryn Bird) we got to be good buddies with all the time spent together and phone calls. She was my biggest help of all and I was so glad that she was up for it!!! They all jumped in and totally helped me keep things together and running smooth. The lady in the front row blue shirt is my friend Tricia Ashby that lives down the street and I usually drag her into my crazy haired ideas. She took over the concession stand for us to raise the money that we needed for the program. It was so cool that we had concessions to make it like a real little league experience but by the end of the eight weeks I was a little sick of hot dogs and nachos. ha ha

So it ended up being a bit bigger than a few teams! oops We had a huge response and ended up with just over 275 kids. We had 3 age groups with 6 teams for each age group so 18 teams total. I got a name from someone in our stake that Ensign Credit Union would possibly donate shirts to our program so I called and organized it. They donated shirts for everyone even coaches and are going to keep donating them for every season. Wow!! I called my brother in law James and he was so nice to design a logo for us and in about a weeks time we had around 400 shirts to hand out. It was amazing how it all worked out so smooth and fast. God was defiantly on our side!

Marcus helped coach Trenton's t-ball team and Andie was kind of an orphan child so she would go get hugs and kisses from dad every so often. She had fun but I felt bad that she didn't have parents for a while! She bounced between us and our friends in our ward helped us to keep an eye on her. She did well and had fun at least.

Trenton had so much fun! He was always so excited for Thursday nights so that he could play baseball. He was sad that he had to hit off the T but he got over it and had a blast!! He is a super good little ball player! Our good friends Kurt and Shadoe Wankier got stuck with the job of coaching this team and they did amazing! The kids learned a lot from these die hard Yankee fans and I gave them blue as their team color on purpose! The little kids were fun to watch grow and learn through out the season. I may have no friends left if I keep dragging them all into my craziness! ha ha

Trenton's T'Ball Team Spring '09
Coaches: (L-R) Valden Thmpson, Head Coach-Kurt Wankier, Ben LeBaron, Marcus Stewart

Makell did so good! One game she got 3 kids out in a row and 5 outs for the game! You rock!! We bought her real shoes after we realized she was wearing her converse to play ball in. She didn't really want to get new shoes but style isn't everything sometimes! We learn something new everyday right!! ha ha

Chase was the child of ours that I felt needed the baseball experience the most. The weekend before it started we went to General Conference in Utah and he hurt his foot. He was out for 8 weeks! The exact amount of time that baseball was going to be! I'll put the foot story on the blog soon! At the end of the season we let him bat and had a someone on the team run for him. I was glad that the team still involved him and he was able to have fun. He could hit the ball way into the outfield standing on one foot. That's some talent! It was fun to watch him. Good Job Buddy!

Makell and Chase's Coach Pitch Team Spring '09

Coaches: (L-R)Head Coach- Melanie Curren, Greg Ashby, Anthony Perkins
Melanie was so amazing with these kids! She had them make a team flag and totally taught them team spirit!! The coaches were really good teaching them the game and they were a really good team! It was fun to cheer them on and watch an actual game be played! Great Job guys!!

So it is all over now and I have a life again! But we decided to keep this going and to have Soccer in the Fall and Baseball in the Spring. We named the program North Las Vegas Primary Sports so that we are able to change it around. The Stake President was so happy with how organized the program was and was happy to see that so many kids got to play and for free even! It was an amazing experience to see how the Lord guides us in life we just have to be willing to put forth the effort! Thank goodness Mormons are willing to serve. ha ha This would have never been such a great success if it weren't for everyone serving and the Lord opening doors for us the whole way. I am so glad that we can do something like this as a family and not have it break the bank or take up our whole life! We have the best Stake ever!!!