Richard Young loves baseball, and although he is only 11 years old, he understands that not everyone has access to equipment like he does. In order to share his love of the sport, he came up with the idea of collecting gently-used baseball equipment from families around Bakersfield and sending it to young athletes around the world. 23ABC's Corey O'Leary caught up with Young to learn more.
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00:00 Play ball. A local youth baseball player is bringing the community together in
00:04 order to boost the sport around the world. Here's 23 abc's Corio Larry
00:08 with more on the boys mission. Richard Young loves baseball and although he's
00:13 only 11 years old, he understands that not everyone has access to equipment
00:17 like he does. So in order to share his love of the sport, he came up with the
00:21 idea to collect gently used baseball equipment from families around Bakers
00:26 Field to send a young athletes around the world. And with the help of black
00:30 gold baseball club, he was able to turn this idea into project double play. I
00:36 really like catching pop flies.
00:37 So project no play. It was an idea I came up with when my dad and some of
00:47 the coaches from my brother's team were talking about doing a service project.
00:51 Young told me he had seen videos online of kids from other countries using
00:55 improvised equipment to practice. So I thought it would be really cool to just
00:59 gather up some used donations with gear or money to help it ship it to the kids
01:07 that need them the most. They've already collected equipment from a donation bin
01:10 that's located at D bat in Northwest Bakersfield. We're looking for balls,
01:15 bats, helmets, mitts, batting gloves, tees and everything baseball project
01:22 double play will also have a donation been set up during the black gold
01:25 baseball camp happening at Frontier High School from 8 a.m. To 12 30 p.m.
01:30 This Wednesday and Thursday. It helps me mature mentally and physically and I
01:37 just really like playing the game. Young says they are collecting donations now
01:42 and have yet to determine exactly where the equipment will go, but wants to
01:45 send it outside of America. We have some connections with uh, former M. L. B.
01:52 players and current that will help us just like guide us in the right
01:57 direction of where to ship them. Young told me that when the baseball
02:01 equipment gets sent out, he hopes it creates a bond between America and that
02:05 country. Frontier High School Corio. Larry 23 abc News connecting you.