Ducks Enriched by Service Trip To Dominican Republic
07/01/15 | O Heroes, @GoDucksMoseley
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
The latest annual overseas service project for UO student-athletes took 19 Ducks to Dominican Republic, where they built a basketball court for a community of Haitian immigrants in June.
Accompanied by women's tennis coach Alison Silverio and four other athletic department administrators, the group of students representing nine UO sports spent seven full days in Batey 7, an agricultural community in the southern region of Dominican Republic. The Ducks lived and worked in the community of about 1,500, coming away enriched by the experience of providing for a needy community, and newly appreciative of life back home.
“It was probably one of the most valuable experiences I've ever had,” said Jillian Alleyne from women's basketball. “And I'm sure I could speak for everyone else in that I have a whole new outlook on life.”
This was the fourth year in a row a UO contingent travelled to Latin America for a project through the Courts for Kids program, and the second trip to Dominican Republic. The Ducks levelled a dirt surface and laid the foundation for a basketball court, but their interactions with the locals – and each other – seem to have been the most memorable aspects.
On the group's first full day in Dominican Republic, June 13, work on the court was delayed while they waited for equipment like shovels and pickaxes to be delivered. So they spent the morning playing with local kids, who delighted in being picked up by hulking football players like Doug Brenner and Elijah George, and being taught how to throw by softball player Stevie Jo Knapp.
“That was probably the best time, just because we got to be kids again,” football player Juwaan Williams said. “We got tired pretty quick; they had so much energy.”
Williams, Brenner and George were three of the six football players on the trip; the others were Matt Pierson, Johnny Ragin III and Devon Allen, who also represented track and field. Alleyne and Jacinta Vandenberg represented women's basketball, Knapp was joined by fellow softball player Lexy Beaudrie-Pierson and there were also teammates from lacrosse (Annie Longtain and Katie Marlatt), acrobatics and tumbling (Sydnee Walton, Shelby Armstrong and Taylr Keating) and volleyball (Chelsey Keoho and Shellsy Ashen). Jack Karraker of UO baseball and Maryn Beutler of the soccer team rounded out the group.
The trip was not without complications, particularly as the Ducks adjusted to the native diet; food was prepared by a group of local women. And it was prepared from scratch: “We'd see them kill the chicken, and then have it later for lunch,” Alleyne said. “It was literally like we were part of the village.”
The Ducks slept on foam pads in a local clinic next to a church, with nets to ward off mosquitos – and, Alleyne said, at least one mouse and one “huge spider the size of a tarantula.” There was no electricity or running water in the town, with the Ducks provided buckets of water with which to bathe.
Williams is one of the most involved UO student-athletes in O Heroes and other service projects, and said the Domincan Republic trip was the most rewarding yet.
“It has to be number one right now,” Williams said. “It was life-changing. You come back from there, realize what you missed – the air conditioning, the drinkable water, all the things you take for granted.”
Alleyne said getting to interact with fellow UO students playing other sports was another highlight of the trip. Brenner was something of a social ring-leader, leading the group through games they could play despite the lack of electricity.
“I've made best friends with literally everybody in the group,” Alleyne said. “And I would have never had the chance to meet them, our paths wouldn't have crossed.”
Cost for the trip was about $1,700 per participant, of which each student was required to fundraise half. The other half was provided by athletic department fundraising, including through the Women in Flight program in the case of the female participants.
On a questionnaire filled out by all the participants prior to the trip so they could get to know each other beforehand, they were asked to list their biggest fear about the experience. Some of the answers were predictable – digesting foreign food, fighting off bugs.
Williams offered a particularly thoughtful response: “failure to complete the court.” Thanks to the Ducks' efforts that didn't come to pass; the day they left Dominican Republic, a crew arrived to install two basketball hoops, completing the project.
“Finishing the court was a reward in its own,” he said. “It was awesome to give the kids something we cherish a lot as athletes.”
