Bolt's Illustrated Gameday Program (2022) - Issue 6

ISSUE 6 2022

JUNE 21-26

live for those winning moments

This is what life is supposed to feel like. When you feel the excitement from those moments that matter. When you have a partner that doesn’t just treat part of you, they care for all of you. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist offers Dash fans the best care, for a more full life.

OFFICIAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDER OF THE WINSTON-SALEM DASH

As the old saying goes, life comes full circle. For former US Coast Guard First Class Storekeeper Dionne "Michelle" Bulla, she can say that with full sincerity.

On top of having trouble finding employment, her mother was ill.

"That transition from military life to civilian life was not easy,” she said.

“Especially in the frame of mind I was Growing up in Davidson County, she in while watching my mom's health was raised solely by her mother deteriorate. Although the Coast Guard Bonnie after her father passed away at trained me to handle many things, it a young age. The North Carolina could have never prepared me for native attended West Davidson High that.”

School and after graduating in 1986, spent a couple of years working as a Needing to cope, Bulla turned to YMCA camp counselor and a Nursing drugs and alcohol, but she wasn’t Assistant while attending school to done trying to serve in the military. become an EMT. She would coerce a doctor to let her back into the Coast Guard in 2001, However, it wasn't until one day in hoping to get her life back on track.

1989 that she found her calling. Seeing a Coast Guard sign on the road, she Sadly, on her first day, as she was decided to enlist. “I was always being introduced to her new chief, the interested in the military,” Bulla said. September 11th attacks occurred.

Being only miles away from the In 1992, she attended a school in Pentagon in Alexandria, Va., Bulla’s Petaluma, Calif., where she was PTSD kicked in and sent her into trained to become a storekeeper, a another spiral. position that entails issuing preserving, procuring, and storing She returned home to take care of her different supplies and materials mom, but her drug and alcohol involved with the Coast Guard. addiction worsened. Staying at a hotel across from where Truist Stadium is Bulla quickly made a name for herself, now located, she holed herself inside becoming First Class within six years. for three weeks. She was picked up by In 1995. she made her first excursion the Coast Guard and sent to rehab in to Europe, helping decommission a Norfolk, Va., but went AWOL and was unit in Lampedusa, Italy. For her sent to four months in military prison. efforts, she earned a Coast Guard At that point, the Coast Guard decided Achievement Medal. it was best for her to not come back, discharging her in 2002.

It wasn't until 1998 when a setback ultimately reshaped her life.

Unfortunately, that year would bring about another difficult event, as her In June of that year, Bulla was mother passed away. While she tried to diagnosed with asthma. Due to this, kick her habits, they would worsen. the Coast Guard temporarily For 10 years, Bulla was either homeless discharged her, allowing her to come or in prison. back in three years. While a break was needed, home life brought other challenges.

It wasn't until 2010 that things began to look up. After asking a friend to drop her off at Arlington Hospital in Arlington, Va., Bulla sat on the bench outside hoping for a sign.

Winston-Salem office as an Employment Specialist. In this role, Bulla works in the Veterans Services program and helps veterans overcome some of the same barriers she has faced in her own life while helping "I said, 'God, you either have to give them find employment, training, and me the strength to get off this bench area resources. and go in this hospital, or you give me the strength to kill myself.”

The memories of her tribulations remain fresh, but the subsequent Ultimately, she willed herself inside, strength mustered to overcome those and, after a couple of tests, she was obstacles has allowed her to have some told some life-altering news. closure.

She was three months pregnant with a "A lot of it was at my hands, and it boy. wouldn't have been what I would've chosen for my life, but it has definitely "He saved my life," said Bulla, mother made me the person I am today,” of Dante, who was born in 2011 and is Bulla said. “To be coming back here, now 11 years old. in the same spot that stole my life, it makes me proud to see what I've With new hope, she started to get her overcome in my life.” life in order. In August 2010, she enrolled in a two-year residential treatment program in Vienna, Va., called New Generations. Bulla graduated from the program in July of 2011 and was able to find a job working for a military uniform company while living in a transitional housing program. She would be laid off in 2014, but that set up the groundwork for her return to North Carolina.

Going back to her roots, Bulla moved back to Davidson County and enrolled in the Work First program, where she was soon assigned to the Goodwill Career Connections, climbing quickly up the ranks as she did in the Coast Guard.

She became a Career Connections Specialist in April of 2015 at the center in Salisbury after taking part in Goodwill's Operation Good Jobs program. In February of 2017, she made her most recent career change.

She is now working at Goodwill's

WINSTON-SALEM DASH

Dan Miller Dan has been with the company since 2016. You can usually find him as a ticket scanner at the Founder’s Gate. He is reliable, friendly and welcoming to everyone, and always goes above and beyond at work!

Dawn Stafford This is Dawn's first season with the Dash! As an attendant in the Hanes Team Store, Dawn assists fans by providing excellent customer service and going above and beyond in her role each and every day. Thank you Dawn for your commitment to our fans and to the Dash!

Sarah Hill Carter Sarah Hill Carter has been with Legends Hospitality since 2017. During the games Sarah works in Concessions as a cashier or on a beer cart. She has also become a valued member of our Non-Game Day catering team. Sarah worked for HanesBrands Inc. for 35 years. She likes to stay busy and loves baseball!

WINSTON-SALEM DASH

Jeff Stallard Jeff has been with the company since 2012. You can usually find him at the VIP Purple Carpet welcoming Flow Club guests to the ballpark. He exemplifies great customer service, is always smiling, and he is flexible and willing to do any job or position.

Jacqueline Hairston Jackie has been with Legends Hospitality for two years as the Pepsi Carolina Plan stand leader. Jackie’s personality and customer service skills are truly one of a kind. When she is not at the ballpark she is a cook for Winston Salem Prep cafeteria. The passion Jackie has for the fans at Truist Stadium and her students is greatly appreciated by everyone she works with.

His year wouldn’t begin in NOAH MONROE Winston-Salem though, it would start on March 17 in Mesa, Arizona with the Yoelquis Céspedes, Luis Robert and White Sox in spring training. In the Yolbert Sánchez. one game he appeared with the team, Ramos went 1-for-2, hitting a home All three being Cuban players to have run that just went over the left-field achieved success recently as a part of wall before being sent down to minor the Winston-Salem Dash league camp. He would continue where he left off in the Dash’s first It’s time to add another name to that game of the season against Hickory list though. with a home run to right field in his first at-bat.

Bryan Ramos.

The Havana, Cuba native Ramos was named the April Player of the Month for the South Atlantic League after hitting .403 with 4 home runs and 16 runs batted in.

Ramos is the third Winston-Salem player in the past four years to win player of the month, joining Robert, and former Dash outfielder Micker Adolfo.

Then two games later, Ramos would hit another home run, beginning a stretch of six straight games in which he’d bring in a run. Not only would that game start the run of runs batted in for Ramos, but it would also begin a 19-game on-base streak, 15 of which, he recorded a hit. The 19-game streak would stretch across April and May and would see Ramos batting .362, hitting 3 home runs, and bringing in 16 runs while leading the Dash to a 14-9 record.

To say the success he’s had with the team was unexpected would be wrong, If this production continues, you’ll be but few expected him to perform on seeing Ramos playing in Birmingham the level he has quite this fast despite sometime soon. being the White Sox’s No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com.

Ramos spent all of the 2021 season playing for the White Sox’s Single-A affiliate, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. He was one of the bright spots for the team in what was an otherwise down year for Kannapolis.

In 115 games, Ramos hit .244 and got on base in over a third of his at-bats, including having 13 home runs, 57 RBI, and 6 triples, leading the team in all three categories.

After spending the entirety of 2021 with Kannapolis, he was assigned to the Dash for the 2022 season.

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