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National Aboriginal Day celebrated with the Jays on Walpole

There were plenty of reasons to smile on Wednesday afternoon on Walpole Island. While the community gathered to celebrate National Aboriginal Day and the Summer Solstice, the Toronto Blue Jays visited the First Nation reserve to officially open their refurbished baseball diamonds on Austin Road.

“It’s the biggest day for minor ball ever,” Lee Jacobs, who coaches several teams on Walpole, told the Sydenham Current at the event.

“To see, not only ours teams, but other reserves bringing teams here just to play ball. It’s about unity, it’s about being Anishinaabe, it’s about being Indian but it’s about loving the game and passing it on.”

Jacobs added: “I brought my Midgets, my Juvenile team and they are passing on everything that I’ve taught them. It goes along with other kinds of teaching, you have to pass them along to the kids or it fades away. This is huge, I’m hoping that our future teams will get better and we’ll have more teams because of this.”

Jacobs said he’s thankful for the donation from the Jays Care Foundation and for their presence on Wednesday.

“I’m glad they’ve given us a chance to show what we’re made of,” he said.

“Everywhere I look I see smiles and people taking pictures and that’s what its about.”

Robert Witchel, executive director for the Jays Care Foundation, told the Sydenham Current they are honoured to be invited.

“It’s a celebration of the Summer Solstice, it’s National Aboriginal Day and we were invited because we had a successful application from Walpole Island First Nation last year through our Field of Dreams program for $136,000 to upgrade the baseball facilities here,” he said.

“We looked at the application, and we have a lot of applications, and only about a dozen are successful every year. It was a very solid application, it talked about the number of kids that are playing baseball, the challenges they had with their field being flooded constantly, not having an accessible bathroom. When our grants committee went through it, they were very impressed. Not only by the application and the number of volunteers, the number of programs they are running for kids here, but also the number of kids who would be able to be introduced to the game of baseball as a result of this.”

The Jays purchased hotdogs which were given out for free to those in attendance, they also handed our free t-shirts and hats and also ran some clinics for the local ball players.

“We brought six clinicians with us today running different skills and drills for the kids here today, then we’re going to break up into several teams and play some games,” Witchel said.

“We’re also going to welcome Walpole Island First Nation to the game on June 27, we’ve provided almost 300 tickets to the community to come and celebrate at our first home game after National Aboriginal Day, so we’re going to celebrate them and indigenous culture at the game. We’ve brought someone from Sportsnet who is going to do some filming for us and try and cover some of the great stuff that happens today.”

The event also featured LIVE music, from Sweet Pea & the Elderberry, Jammers, The Isaac Brothers, Spencer Brigham, Don and Ron Barnier and Walpole Island’s own drum group, Snye Creek.

There was also be vendors, drinks, snacks, inflatables and horse shoes.

Here are some videos from the event:

Here are some photos:

– Photo credit: Aaron Hall

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