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MAJOR LEAGUERS IN ACTION |
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Meet the Action Team Players:
Cincinnati and Indianapolis Action Team
 Talking with the Cincinnati Reds’ David Weathers
Have you ever thought about what you could do for your community if you become successful one day? Cincinnati Reds pitcher and Action Team member David Weathers offers an inspiring example of many ways to give back to the place where you live. But make no mistake, he wants young people to get started as volunteers today, not someday. “When you volunteer, you learn that there are many things much bigger than yourself in life,” says Weathers. “Don’t wait until you are older to discover that. There is no time like the present to make a difference as a volunteer!”
Weathers went to high school in Loretto, Tennessee, where he played All State baseball in his sophomore, junior, and senior years. Six years ago, this Major League relief pitcher and his wife Kelli started the David Weathers Charities to support programs for children in Lawrence County, Tennessee, where Weathers grew up. Located south of the city of Nashville on the Alabama state line, the county is mainly rural. Weathers feels strongly that the needs of rural areas are often overlooked, even though they have many of the same issues with poverty and lack of resources as inner cities. He is working to change that for children in his home region.
David Weathers Charities awards annual college scholarships to deserving local students. He also focuses on projects that benefit large groups of children, such as donating funds to purchase playground equipment for the park in Loretto, helping an elementary school create an outdoor classroom, and contributing to a high school’s campaign to light its baseball field. “Our goal is to give incentives to students to work hard – and to give kids hope,” Weathers explains. ”I’ve learned from volunteering that sometimes it’s about doing little things that people need.”
As an Action Team player, Weathers is working to share his lessons about volunteering with high school members of the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Action Teams. “It’s really about helping others in any way you can,” states Weathers. “It’s looking around your community and saying, that’s something I can do – that we can do – to meet a need.” Volunteering also helps teens’ relationship with the community, he observes. “When people see teens volunteering their own time for others – just think of the impact that has!”
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“Service leadership isn’t telling others what to do. It’s having a vision of what a project can do,” says David Weathers, here addressing Cincinnati and Indianapolis Action Team Captains at the Action Team’s leadership orientation program. (Cincinnati Reds’ players Javier Valentin and Josh Fogg are also Action Team members.) Learn more about Weathers’ service leadership and activities at www.davidweatherscharities.org and meet a Cincinnati Action Team Captain at Teens In Action. |
Weathers is honest about the obstacles that he has overcome and that students can face with service. “It can be frustrating at times. It takes a lot of hard work to organize a big project. It takes patience and perseverance. Don’t think volunteering is always easy – but it is always rewarding,” Weathers declares. “There is nothing like the feeling when someone says thanks.”
Getting involved with service and what you do as a volunteer all comes down to “a matter of expectations,” Weathers believes. “Expect it and you can have a part in changing your community,” he says. It’s also a matter of what you expect of yourself, he adds. “When you lay your head down at night, you have to know you’ve done all that you can to help.”
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