{"id":3545,"date":"2011-06-07T09:35:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T13:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3545"},"modified":"2011-06-07T09:36:27","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T13:36:27","slug":"ura-athlete-of-the-week-michael-walter-dillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3545","title":{"rendered":"URA Athlete of the Week: Michael Walter-Dillon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine-year-old ballplayer led effort to collect baseball gear for youths in developing countries<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Brian Ladd<\/strong>, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michael Walter-Dillon, URA Athlete of the Week.<\/p><\/div>\n

President John F. Kennedy once said \u201cChildren are the world\u2019s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.\u201d\u00a0 That thought still rings true today as evidenced by the actions of our latest URA Athlete of the week, Michael Walter-Dillon.<\/p>\n

When Michael traveled to the Cal Ripken World Series in Aberdeen, Md. last August, little did he know it would be a life-changing experience.\u00a0 Nor did he know the impact that day would have on the lives of other, less fortunate children across the world.<\/p>\n

It was that fateful day Michael learned that children in impoverished countries try to play baseball without having any equipment.\u00a0 Coming from an area where kids have their own bats, gloves, cleats, new baseballs for every game, catcher\u2019s equipment and where many routinely get private lessons and have outstanding facilities to play in year round, when the 9-year-old heard this, it was hard for him to imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man told me that people in poor countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti use crumbled up cardboard for balls and sticks for bats,\u201d Michael said. \u201cThere was no way to explain how I felt when I heard that.\u201d\u2028\u2028After meeting Oriole Advocates representatives at the Ripken World Series, Michael felt he needed to do something to help.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a new concept that Michael is just beginning to grasp. It\u2019s something his mother, Mary Walter, often reminds him about.\u2028\u2028\u201cWe have explained to him that he is a very fortunate kid,\u201d Walter said, \u201cand we want to instill a sense of service in him. He\u2019s got two bags of baseball equipment. For him, it clicked to give others a chance to play baseball.\u201d\u2028\u2028Michael set up boxes at Unionville High School baseball and softball clinics and tryouts. Collection containers were also set up at Chadds Ford Elementary school, Hillendale Elementary School, Patton Middle School and Unionville High School. The KAU Little League and the Unionville Recreation Association leagues also placed containers at their fields during their opening weekends in early April.<\/p>\n

“Even with all of those groups willing to help, the early returns were dismal.\u00a0 Michael, a third grader at Chadds Ford Elementary, began to get a little discouraged,” his mother explained. “In the first two weeks he only had two boxes of equipment.\u00a0 Michael thought there was no way he was going to even get 10 boxes of equipment.
\n“Michael persevered and ended up collecting 32 boxes and more than 1,300 pieces of baseball and softball equipment that weighed more than 500 pounds!”<\/p>\n

Late Thursday morning, Oriole Advocates representatives met with Michael and picked up the boxes, taking them to their headquarters in Baltimore. Oriole Advocate President Bob Harden was on hand to help load Michael\u2019s boxes.\u00a0 Harden said the equipment is scheduled to be sent to Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.\u2028\u2028\u201cWhat has happened,\u201d Harden said, \u201cis that kids are grasping that giving is more important.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s something not lost on Michael. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a community service,\u201d he said, \u201cIt\u2019s global service.\u201d<\/p>\n

URA thanks Michael for his \u201cglobal service\u201d and for taking the time to help those less fortunate and for setting an example for others to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine-year-old ballplayer led effort to collect baseball gear for youths in developing countries By Brian Ladd, Special to UnionvilleTimes.com President John F. Kennedy once said \u201cChildren are the world\u2019s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.\u201d\u00a0 That thought still rings true today as evidenced by the actions of our latest URA Athlete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[303,39,116],"class_list":["post-3545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-athlete-of-the-week","tag-chadds-ford","tag-unionville-recreation-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}