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This Holiday Season, for the eighth year in a row, returning and prospective baseball players at South Johnston High School took part in a community service project. We raffled off a $100 Wal-Mart gift card with 100% of the proceeds going to the US Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots. The baseball program at South Johnston got no money from this project, but the players involved reaped plenty of benefits. The players raised $3422.00 in ticket sales. It was great to see that people were still willing to give their support even in today’s economic climate. Ester Garner, a teacher at South Johnston High School won the drawing for this year’s gift card. High salesmen for the Trojans were Bailey Coe (for the 3^rd year in a row) selling 300 tickets, and Kevin Honeycutt selling 297 tickets to this year’s raffle.

We concluded the project on Saturday December 15 by traveling to Wal-Mart in Smithfield where the players actually did the shopping for the toys. When all was said and done, the Trojan Baseball teams had purchased 529 toys valued at $3438.28 that will brighten Christmas morning for many children. The US Marine Corps Reserve had representatives on site Saturday morning. Gunnery Sergeant David Swope from the USMC Reserve center in Raleigh, and Mr. Calvin Spradlin USMC-Retired from Selma met the team at Wal-Mart on Saturday to receive the toys for Toys for Tots and get them headed to the hands of children on Christmas morning. Coach Keith Durham presented two camouflages Trojan Baseball t-shirts to Gunny Swope as a thank you for the sacrifices made by our service men and women everywhere. The Trojans wear similar shirts as jerseys at their annual Military Appreciation Day home game.

It was a wonderful experience for everyone involved, and it was great to see our young people working so hard for a worthy cause with no thought of reward. It is our hope that this project will help make the Holidays a little bit brighter for some children that might not have had much to look forward to on Christmas morning. One of the goals of the South Johnston Athletic Department is to help our student-athletes see the community and world around them, and to help them to understand that they have a responsibility to be a positive force in the lives of other people. This project is one of the ways we encourage our student-athletes to give back to their community. Over the past eight years, the Trojan Baseball program has raised $25,119.28 to buy 3,562 toys to help make Christmas a more joyous time of year for less fortunate children.

This is our eighth year of this annual project and we are very grateful that the Marine Corps Reserve, Wal-Mart, South Johnston High School, and the community work with us in making this project a success. If it were not for the individuals and businesses that purchase tickets every year, we could not be a part of this wonderful cause.

Thank you and Merry Christmas to all.

Keith Durham

Athletic Director

Head Baseball Coach

South Johnston High School