3 weeks ago AmeriCorps NCCC Gold 3, Marnie and I teamed up with United Healthcare to begin a Herculean task. I remember looking at the “baseball field”  (focus on the word field) at the present sight of George Washington Carver High School and Elementary School modular schoolyards and thinking… What are we thinking? Since the storm, none of our schools have baseball diamonds. How are we going to do this? Will we be able to finish? Is this even possible? Is Troy crazy? Is home plate centered? Can we get a sod cutter? (for the last time…No Jake we can’t) Do these ants bite?

We measured and remeasured and then re remeasured. Then we broke soil. We hand dug the infield, leveled the outfield, wheel barrowed uncountable loads of dirt, sand, clay, sod for miles and miles. 3 weeks later we were finished. There was no music montage in between. There was no genie emerging from a Robyn lamp. There was the unending determination of an Americorps team and the help of hundreds of now blistered hands. Lawyers from DRI came out to help. Students in town from North Carolina, Boston and VT stopped by on their way to Bourbon Street. Hillel reminded us of tikkun olam. Repairing the world.  With shovels and rakes. With a roller for Jake and Paul. With teamwork. With stubbornness. We were unified by our hearts and hands and mostly by… baseball. I’ve never seen so many baseball hats. Yankees, Rams, Tigers (LSU and Detroit), Twins, Orioles, Blue Jays, Jayhawks, Cubs, Tarheels, Cardinals, White Sox and Red Sox… all working together. All admitting that, even on their best day, none of their star hitters would be able to crank one out of this 440’ beast. Not even Jeter. We played a quit at bat after we finished and everyone got hits. I felt like I was 10 years old rounding the bases. I’m often proud of the work that I do, I am often humbled and honored by the people I am fortunate to work with. This is a little bigger. This is a diamond.

Who wants to build the next 1?