Baseball Tavern Fund Raiser

Hi folks,

This is my 10th year as a Boston Public School teacher and this will be my 6th and final service learning trip until my daughter is old enough to join me in fighting for a better and Boston and a better planet and it a pleasure to take on this final journey with two amazing people: Bridget Ryan and Claudia Martinez. 

I (along Bridget and Claudia) will be hosting my final fundraiser and where else than the amazing folks at the Baseball Tavern (truly great people). We will have a raffle and silent auction and I will be updating the prizes later on (a shout out to the amazing people and friends at Higs Tickets).  We are asking for $20 donations and the money includes some free food as well as a door raffle.  Thanks to K Stak Theodorus​ we will have a live band! Some come support our students and have a fun pre-St. Patrick’s Friday.

If you can't come, but would like to donate, you can donate online (link on this page) or send a check to:

John D. O'Bryant School of Math & Science

Attn: Paul Pitts-Dilley

55 Malcolm X. Blvd., Roxbury, MA 02120

Checks should be made to "O'Bryant School"

WHY SHOULD YOU COME OR DONATE ONLINE?

We have 21 students in a school where 85% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and although the trip costs $1400 per student, they only have to pay $100 to $500 (depending on how much they raise as individuals).

This is the best group of students that I have ever had and each spend at least two hours a week working with kids as young as 3 years old (Autistic pre-schoolers in Roxbury) to 8th graders in 6 schools in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. We also have students working in 3 food pantries in Roxbury and Dorchester.  Many of these students are struggling to pay $500, but they have overcome poverty and a few of them are applying to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Northeastern and many more amazing colleges (many will be first generation college students).

For our final trip we will be returning to the Dominican Republic to work with young Haitian-Dominican people who are not allowed to go to local public schools, because the Dominican Government challenges their citizenship.  When I hosted a trip there five years ago, it broke my heart to see black Dominican kids have to go to makeshift volunteer schools where a high school age child could be in the same room as an elementary school age child. Some of these children did not go to school at all.  

All of the funds raised help pay for the 21 O'Bryant students to go on the trip and help us provide funds for the building of social projects including buy school supplies for the Haitian-Dominican children. 

We will be working with 140 children from 4 different bateys (shanty towns) and we will be doing the following:

1. Preparing a small house/shack to become a school for these 30 students. 

a. We will buy, collect and bring school materials.

b. $3000 will be donated to the community so they can hire a teacher (many of these children have never gone to school).

c. Our students will be teaching Spanish literacy, English and math as well as arts and crafts and sports.

d. For each day that we are working with the kids, we will be buying lunch for the children, as hunger is another struggle that these children face. 

2. We will be replacing the rusted tin roofs of at risk people. To be honest all of the roofs should be replaced as well as the shacks, but we can only afford to replace some of the roofs and pay for school materials and a full time teacher, so we have chosen to target the elderly and handicapped, including a local blind person's home.   

3. If we can, we will be paying for a day care person, so the kids can stay after school hours.  This would allow the mothers of  10 to 20 children (many who are single and young moms) to work and be able to better support their families.

Thank you and please consider attending or donating online.