Seymour youth Pastor Dan Weaver first started taking mission trips to the Dominican Republic in 1998.
The groups he organized each year worked from 1998 to 2008 to help build a sports camp.
When the camp and its buildings were finished in 2008, Weaver then started taking groups of high school students and adult sponsors to the Caribbean Island on an annual basis to host basketball and volleyball camps for a 10-day period.
Through the years Weaver has taken more than 500 volunteers to the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominicans share with Haiti.
“It’s amazing to see God’s plan and then to see the plan come to fruition,” Weaver said. “The Dominicans have a passion to learn basketball.”
Weaver works closely with Michell Marte, a Dominican preacher in Navarette, who is Seymour Christian Church’s living-link missionary.
Marte is responsible for coordinating the logistics of the mission trip including acquiring housing for the mission team, providing in-country transportation and locating sites for the sports camps.
Donna Sullivan, Seymour’s Hall of Fame basketball coach, joined the mission team in 2008, and she has been instrumental in training the sponsors, and high school students, who are mostly from Seymour Christian Church.
She also takes the trip to the country several times each year and helps direct sports camps.
Sullivan has conducted basketball camps for more than 40 years.
She was the head girls basketball coach at Seymour High School for 31 years and the volleyball coach for 21 years.
Since retiring from Seymour, she has hosted many basketball camps at various colleges each year.
The sports camps in Dominican Republic are an extension of her basketball camp experience, and they allow her to expand upon her faith as well.
“We started the sports camps as a way to get kids into church, and we have praise and worship service at the camp,” Sullivan said.
“We go out to the communities now to get more than just kids.” (Adults are permitted to participate in the camp.) The communities now host basketball tournaments.
As a group of 33 camp volunteers train and ready themselves for 10 days worth of camps, I wonder if hundreds of Dominicans will attend, as they have in the past.
They love the game of basketball, and they know that Indiana is a hotbed for basketball.
When Indiana is mentioned to some Dominicans, they will mention Paul George, the Indiana Pacers star.
I’ve learned that we cannot teach them anything about baseball, which is their national sport, but we can teach them many things about basketball and volleyball.
They have an Olympic basketball team, but I’ve been told their entire Dominican team lives in the United States.
We will teach them unfamiliar sports, get to know them better, and we’ll tell them about Christ.
Kelsie Pullen, 20, of Brownstown, is taking her fourth consecutive trip. She said she learns a lot on each trip.
“We go in and do sports camps for the kids with hopes of inviting them to church that night or when we do VBS,” Pullen said. “We want to get them interested and keep them coming back.”
Pullen played basketball in middle school and volleyball in high school.
Hannah Haubry, 17, of Seymour, said this is her first year going.
“The last few years I couldn’t go because of sports and work, and this year I felt the Lord pushing me to go,” Haubry said. “I’m nervous about the impact I will make but excited about going.”
During his time in the Dominican Republic, Lenny Hauersperger will be sharing his experiences in a column for The Tribune. This is the first article in a five-part series.