As if having a royal baby named Prince George isn't enough, our city's name is about to gain even more worldwide recognition.
Kids in the tiny Mexican village of Barron don't know it yet but they will soon be sporting baseball uniforms that have Prince George written all over them.
The 100 matching sets of jerseys and pants emblazoned with local sponsor names like Hart Drug Mart and Brink Forest Products were last used in the late 1980s by local teams in the Prince George Babe Ruth Baseball League and were gathering dust in the shed of Shirley Gratton. Gratton, a former Base Ruth district president, was cleaning out her shed and made a public appeal to Citizen readers to try to get the jerseys into the hands of a group of underprivileged kids.
Richard Oviatt, commercial accounts manager of the Prince George branch of BMO Bank of Montreal, read the Citizen story last week and contacted Gratton, who was elated when he told her of his plan to have the jerseys shipped to Mexico.
Oviatt and his family have a winter resort in the gated community of Estrella del Mar, located on the Pacific coast of central Mexico. Nine years ago the condo project's residents helped build a school in nearby Barron, where many of the resort's housekeeping and grounds workers live.
"It's quite a poor fishing community and it didn't have a school," said Oviatt. "All of the residents of the condo project there have been volunteering to help the people and they have become like family. We spent Christmas with them and helped them build a baseball diamond."
Before the school was built, the kids of Barron were bused to Mazatlan, a half-hour trip each way. Oviatt says the school now has 350 students and has become the focal point of the community. The ball diamond is in use constantly.
"Soccer is the biggest sport in Mexico but they love baseball, it's huge in Mazatlan," said Oviatt.
"These uniforms and hats, the kids are going to absolutely love them. They haven't been used since 1988 but they're in great shape. They just need to be washed."
Some of the elastic waistbands of the pants will have to be replaced and some of the knees need patching but no moths have feasted on them.
Oviatt plans to return to Mexico in October and will present the uniforms to the school once he gets there. He plays ball with the Mexican kids and every year brings them donations of used gloves and softballs from his slopitch team in Prince George.
Gratton said she received four calls from Citizen readers inquiring about the uniforms and was happy to hand over 12 garbage bags full of them to Oviatt.
"I'm so excited, I really appreciate it," said Gratton. "Maybe somebody else out there has a set of uniforms in their shed or basement and they can give them away."
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