POPLAR HILL, ONTARIO

ATHLETES IN ACTION BASEBALL CAMP

AUGUST, 2012

I knew the water puddle just behind shortstop into the outfield was two square meters, and in my subconscious I was wondering what my reaction would be if the ball would be hit right into those two square meters…

Of course, the ball was hit right into that area and I went for it, the old ‘run, jump and dive’ reaction was still in me as I dove and reached for the fly ball.  But I dropped it as I fell and slid right through the puddle, arms and legs spread wide and high as the water went wide and high with me.  If I gave an excuse, it was because my mind had been too occupied with the puddle and I had momentarily taken my eye off the ball. The native adult fastball players got a good laugh over the hit, splash and noise in center field.

The Poplar Hill First Nations community is located about one hour flight north of Red Lake, Ontario with a population of about 500.

A year ago I had been approached by two of their band members to come and do a camp in their community.  These men were in Pauingassi for a fastball tournament and had taken note of the work we were doing in that community.  I took this invitation seriously, and with the encouragement of some people, lots of planning and many questions, we went up with a team of 8 AIA volunteer staff.

I, together with Don Wiebe had been able to fly up to the community a few weeks beforehand to take a look at the community as well as meet with the Chief and Council members.  If I was bringing adults up to this community that was new to us, I felt I needed to have a visual of the situation first.  I needed to know what our accomodations would be and what kind of facilities would be available for us to work in.

Getting supplies and staff into these northern communities is always a challenge. Our cargo was flown from the Steinbach airport by MAF and our team went to St Andrews airport to be flown out to Poplar Hill with AMIK Aviation.  The two flights arrived within an hour of each other.

Our daily activities of Bible lessons, crafts and games took place in the afternoons.  In addition to this we also hosted the men of the community to a breakfast, and visited individual homes to bring gift bags to the ladies of the community.  Walter and I got to be part of some great fastball games.  There is a lot of top quality fastball in this community.  Walter’s arm was quite sore from all the pitching he did, but it was a terrific game.   The community wiener roast was a huge hit and we served about 325 hotdogs that evening.  I enjoyed serving the ball players, fans and even the umpire.  The people were thankful and appreciated the wiener roast.

It was great to have 48 men come out for the breakfast, where we not only fed them breakfast, but also shared Jesus Christ with them.

Our grand finale was the fireworks show which we set off on the ball diamond.  The problem with this was the curiosity of the dogs.  The final firecracker got a close inspection by a dog, who managed to tip it, resulted in a ground level sideways display shooting after the dog, who was now finally trying to leave the scene.

My thanks to the community of Poplar Hill for having us. We appreciated the warm reception of the chief, the band councilors and the whole community.  The Ontario Police stationed in the community also offered to give us a ride when we were walking along the road.

It seemed like the week had gone too quickly when we heard the Caravan plane coming in to pick us up from the dock to take us back to St Andrews.    

This year’s volunteer AIA staff were:  John and Marlene Friesen, Adam Friesen, Clarence and Hilda Funk, Don Wiebe, Walter Fehr and Albert Martens

     Albert Martens

  Athletes in Action