After winning the 2023 state championship, seniors on the Pioneer baseball team wanted to find a way to give back to their community. The Christmas season was the perfect opportunity.

That’s when seniors Ethan Welch, Jacob Gibson, Dalton Worstell, Aiden Greenwald and Brock Johnson accepted a challenge by Heath Worstell, president of the Powell American Legion Baseball board of directors, to find a family in need and make their Christmas a little brighter.

One call to Patty Paulson, president of the American Legion Auxiliary at Post 26, was all it took to find a family for their inaugural outreach program. Paulson coordinates the Powell-area commodities distributions and has a finger on the pulse of those in the community who are suffering hardships.

She knew of a Powell family who wasn’t going to have Christmas without the kindness of strangers. A single mother of five, with her oldest child suffering from renal failure and requiring dialysis in Cody three times a week. There were no funds for presents or a special meal.

“Not every child has parents to support them or the opportunity to play baseball. There are families with hardships,” Paulson said. “The players are learning to pay it forward — to do something to make others in the world happy.”

Welch said the reaction by the family is something he will never forget.

“I felt really grateful after seeing the smile on the mom’s face and the kids’ faces and knowing the situation they were in,” he said. “And I felt, like, really good about myself.”

Welch said he has learned a lot about life through baseball, including the importance of giving back to your community.

“It makes us feel like we’re part of something bigger,” he said. “Whenever we have a bad day, it’s always worse for someone else. It [helping with their Christmas] really kind of brought it into a new light for me. And I hope it did for the rest of my teammates.”

After his senior baseball season Welch plans to attend college with the hopes of becoming a pharmacist. But while the lessons he has learned playing for the Pioneers will stay with him always, baseball is not in his longterm plans.

“I’m gonna call it quits — baseball is going to be out of the picture. There will still be cherished memories to me, of course,” he said.

Worstell believes the education players receive through the team shouldn’t stop at athletics.

“I’m hoping this will start a tradition,” he said, adding that it was a very humbling experience for everyone involved.