Thursday, July 17, 2008
Volunteer opens her glove to help
Amy Webb started the nonprofit Opportunity Through Baseball.
Photo courtesy of Amy Webb
Owen Merritt hands off donated equipment to Amy Webb as they pack items into her car after a Richmond Braves game.
Who do you know?
E-mail news@sosalem.com to tell us about the individuals making an impact in the community -- in business, sports, religion, health and more.
How to help
Equipment accepted by OTB:
- Baseballs and softballs
- Batting gloves
- Cleats and spikes
- Equipment bags
- Catcher's gear
- Bat weights
- Wooden and aluminum bats
- Batting helmets
- Knee, elbow, ankle and other joint braces or protective wear
- Baseball and softball gloves, catcher's mitts, batting gloves
- New hats
Bring donations to:
- The next Salem Avalanche collection dates, July 25 or August 24
- Mail them to 3047 Fresh Meadow Lane, Salem, VA 24153
Contact Amy at 540-389-OTB1 or at amy@openyourglove.org with questions or for local pickups.
Urged by a co-worker, Amy Webb, the executive director and founder of Opportunity Through Baseball, looked through videos of nonprofit groups on the popular Web site YouTube.
"When I first started this, I knew there was a need for equipment, but how was I going to find them?" said Webb, 23.
While the original intent was to produce her own clip, Webb said she instead found networking opportunities and -- more importantly -- people who needed the equipment she was collecting.
Soon, the Baltimore Orioles fan was sending baseballs to a tournament in Manipur, India; equipment to The Negro League Baseball Academy in Chicago; and connecting with many more organizations.
Through her connections she made at the now-defunct Roanoke Express and Roanoke Vipers hockey teams, she collects equipment at home games of area major- and minor-league clubs, as well as college-age teams, such as the Martinsville Mustangs of the amateur Coastal Plain League.
OTB has grown quite a bit since its start several years ago, when Webb used a how-to book, "How to start a nonprofit organization: with forms ... " by Mark Warda, as her guide for establishing the agency.
"It sounds silly, but I still have the book," she said.
The organization, which started with three or four volunteers, now has grown to eleven.
And while Webb only needed some of the space in her apartment's spare bedroom to store the donated sports equipment, she now fills up an entire unit at Virginia Varsity Self Storage.
All this is the result of the young visionary taking an idea she developed for an AP English paper and turning it into a skin-and-bones reality helping real kids.
"She had the foundation, she just needed people to help her with what she had already started," said Brian Wilson, who works at Robertson Marketing with Webb.
Several of her co-workers have found themselves volunteering, too.
Wilson brings his daughter, Briana, 12, along to the Martinsville Mustangs and Richmond Braves games to help gather equipment and support, too, hoping that Webb's determination and charisma might provide a positive influence on his child.
And also because, well, who doesn't like being taken out to a ballgame?
