Pottery trip ends up helping kids play baseball

Kids in Mexico now have uniforms thanks to Warwick Monogramming WARWICK — A trip to Mexico to offer a pottery workshop evolved into an opportunity to help local children play baseball. Judy Duboff, owner of Amity Arts Pottery Studio, Bonnie Goldmacher, Melissa Peterson, JoAnn Quattrone and Monica Reyes recently traveled to Ek Balam in Mexico to offer a pottery workshop with the traditional Mayan Potters of Uayma. While staying in the Mayan Village of Ek Balam, they saw how children were so adept at making kites from sticks and plastic bags and playing games like balls and jacks with pebbles. The children later brought them to a baseball field where they constructed and flew the kites. “While we were at the field I thought of my sons and how they played in Little League,” said Quattrone. “This would be the perfect opportunity to set up teams here in Ek Balam and watch the kids play baseball. They had a bat and a ball, but I thought wouldn’t it be great if they had uniforms.” Back in New York, when her son was getting ready for the lacrosse season, Quattrone asked John and Lynn Peruso of Warwick Monogramming Lacrosse Xtension if they knew where she could get some used Little League uniforms, telling them what she was planning to do. To her surprise, Peruso told her that he had new pants and hats he could donate. “I was so excited, my teams were on their way,” said Quattrone. “A friend from California shipped 24 T-shirts, yellow and purple the colors of Warwick schools. I numbered the shirts, and with the pants, hats, new baseballs, my son’s bats and mitts the team would be ready to play.” This past March, Quattrone and Reyes returned to Ek Balam to bring the donations raised at their pottery sales to the Mayan Potters of Uayma. This would help the Uayman potters to keep their ancient skills going and enable them to branch out to sell their goods and eventually become sustainable, according to Quattrone. They also fulfilled their secondary mission. “We brought the baseball equipment over to Ek Balam and the kids were thrilled to play ball,” she said. “They played two days out of the three days we were there. They wanted us to watch them the third day but we had other commitments to take care of with the Uayman potters.” Quattrone was thrilled to see the children have so much fun. “It was a great sight to watch as the children played ball even though they had no cleats, the kids ran barefoot,” said Quattrone. “They are excellent ball players and it was such a joy to see this vision come to fruition. We want to thank Warwick Monogramming Lacrosse Xtension for their generosity, which made this dream a reality.”