Volunteers from the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR continued their community service work throughout the year, holding reminiscence sessions in Kerrville and Round Rock, Texas. We currently have more than 10 chapter members actively involved in this effort, along with several family members.
Here’s what we’ve been up to:
Jim Kenton and Larry Rice (aka “The Baseball Guys”) are back live and in-person at the Kerrville VA Medical Center in Kerrville, Texas. They continue to hold a monthly program there in cooperation with the VA’s Recreation Therapy staff. Attendance usually runs eight to 12 vets and VA staff.
We held a full year of 12 monthly in-person programs at the AGE of Central Texas facility in Round Rock, Texas. We’re there on the third Wednesday of each month for a 90-minute program. Attendance ranges from 25 to 30 participants, plus several staff members that enjoy joining in.
We have a diverse audience there, so we continually experiment with a broad-ranging program that includes singing, dancing, history, TV & cinema, and current events in addition to baseball. We have introduced relevant Spanish-language content, as well as donated books, crossword puzzles, and word scrambles – all with a baseball theme. At our Christmas program, we used funding provided by our SABR chapter to buy some gifts for the group as a whole.
Ira Siegel, Jerry Miller, Mike Dillon, Dan Walsh, Bailey Hall, Nicole Bryan (and her mom Jean), Peter Myers and Monte Cely (along with his wife Linda) are all active volunteers supporting the programs at AGE.
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2025
Larry Rice and Jim Kenton are starting another veterans-focused program at the Audie Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio. The first session will be held there in January. Several additional chapter members have volunteered to help support this new initiative. Sessions will continue at Kerrville as well.
Monte Cely had a preliminary discussion with AGE of Central Texas staff about starting another Baseball Memories program at their new offices in South Austin. They are enthusiastic about doing this. We hope to start by Opening Day in the spring.
MORE NEWS
Larry Rice has been instrumental in coordinating the start-up at Audie Murphy as well as recruiting new SABR volunteers. In addition, he’ll be taking over the responsibility for both VA programs from Jim. We say a big “Thank You” to Jim for his ten years of leadership of our chapter’s baseball reminiscence programs, as well as setting the stage for more SABR chapters to begin similar offerings. Fortunately, Jim will continue to volunteer at Kerrville and now at San Antonio; as well as continue to be available for advice and guidance.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
There’s more information on our chapter’s website at:
https://www.sabrhornsby.org/baseball-memories/
or feel free to email Monte or Larry at:
Monte Cely : cely@swbell.net
Larry Rice: ukisno1@gmail.com