Page 74 - October Sun Rays_Oct 2015

Ken Stubert umpiring at St. Stevens Field in Eight Mile Rock. The sports program started with 28 children and now serves
more than 200 children.

Continued from the previous page PHOTOS COURTESY OF KEN AND MARY LOU STUBERT

development. Ken was hooked, positive Ken Stubert shakes hands with the Rev. Lindy Russell, director of an island youth
God was presenting him the answer to development association. The team pictured, from Eight Mile Rock, won second
his prayer to use his love of baseball to place in the Grand Bahama Baseball Tournament.
serve others.
On Bahamian Independence Day, July sponsored by the West Grand Bahama
Ken asked the association when it wanted 10, 2010, the community program met Youth Development Association, is
the baseball program to start and was its scheduled goals to play baseball and winning inter-island tournaments, Ken
told in four months. It was a very short held its first organized games, with 28 proudly notes. Plans are under way to
timeframe to start a community sports children playing. Ken, who helped train expand the program to other islands in
program that had no resources, but Ken the coaches, says many children initially the Bahamas.
decided to push ahead and try to help didn’t know which hand to wear their
make it happen. gloves on or even in which order to run Programs like Little League take a lot
the bases. of continued effort to replace and update
The couple left the island and returned to equipment and clothes, and Georgetown
New Hampshire, where they continued This year, 200 youth are playing in the and Sun City have helped. Georgetown
to live most of the year, and asked league, ages 11 to 15. And the league, Sporting Goods contributed 144 pairs of
their church there for help obtaining
used baseball equipment for the sports ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
program. Acting on a suggestion, Ken
sent an email intended for a local Little
League program in Windham, N.H.,
seeking donations. But by mistake
he sent the email to a Little League
program in Windham, Maine, which just
happened to have a tractor-trailer load of
used baseball equipment — bats, balls,
gloves, uniforms, bases, even umpire and
catcher’s equipment — that it had been
storing for two years because there was
no identified need for the gear.

The Stuberts soon shipped four pallet
loads of equipment — enough to equip
six full baseball teams — to the island.

72 | SUNRAYS OCTOBER 2015