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Friday, August 24, 2012
Town Times
Playing for the love of the game
After Emily spending a week on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota with the non-profit organization Simple Smiles, I learned how thankful I was for many of the things I typically took for granted. A nice hot shower was first on my list followed by air conditioning and toilets that flush. Another thing I was more surprised to discover I had taken for granted was sportsmanship and love of a game. Prior to arriving on the reservation, my father sent out an e-mail to the Coginchaug Little League community on my behalf asking for donations of baseball equipment. The Lakota children on the reservation had taken up a huge liking to baseball, but their supplies were limited. I was
truly amazed at the number of donations I received, so many that the back of my car was packed to the brim. I was overwhelmed and sincerely grateful for all the donors and especially Coginchaug Little League for their generosity; this wouldn’t have been possible without their assistance. The look on these children’s faces when they saw the mounds of baseball equipment my group had brought for them was priceless. During my time on the reservation, I saw a community come together over something as simple as a baseball game. A community that is so stricken with poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse and child suicides had nothing more to worry about when they stepped onto the makeshift baseball
Sokol
Guest Column
Donated equipment in the back of Emily Sokol’s truck.
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Photo by Emily Sokol
field than how many outs there were or who was up next. It was an amazing experience to see boys, girls, children, adults, volunteers and Native Americans all come together in such an impoverished community to play a game of baseball. If one wasn’t playing the game, they were cheering on from the sidelines. A
See Game, page 31
ORTHODONTICS
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