Changing Lives in 5 Days!

Changing Lives in 5 Days! documents the journey of 14 urban youth from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and their cultural experience through thru the game of baseball. On August 18 to 22, 2016, a team consisting of Journey House Felix Mantilla Little League Scholar Athletes, parents, coaches, umpires, and Journey House staff and volunteers travelled from Milwaukee, WI to Major League Baseball Legend Felix Mantilla's birthplace of Isabela, Puerto Rico to play baseball and participate in education...
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Changing Lives in 5 Days! documents the journey of 14 urban youth from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and their cultural experience through thru the game of baseball. On August 18 to 22, 2016, a team consisting of Journey House Felix Mantilla Little League Scholar Athletes, parents, coaches, umpires, and Journey House staff and volunteers travelled from Milwaukee, WI to Major League Baseball Legend Felix Mantilla's birthplace of Isabela, Puerto Rico to play baseball and participate in education and cultural experiences and play baseball. The Scholar Athletes selected for the Puerto Rico trip were 9 to 10 year old baseball players in our Felix Mantilla Little League. The team was composed of 10 All-Star players and 4 Academic Scholar Athletes. According to Felix Mantilla Jr., Chair of the Felix Mantilla Little League Education and Cultural Exchange Initiative, ?My hope is that they take this experience and say that was a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and build on it as they go back to school. This Education and Cultural Exchange Tour will be the first prong in a multi-prong educational initiative associated with baseball in the Felix Mantilla Little League.'For many of our Scholar Athletes, families, and team members, this was their first-time on a plane. Many first times happened during this trip, which makes the tour truly educational and life changing. First time: seeing a palm tree, exploring a 500-year old fort and its canons, taking-in breathtaking views of sparkling blue Atlantic Ocean, strolling on centuries-old blue cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, plunging into the ocean to catch a homemade coconut football, eating different types of food, experiencing hot-from-the-oven pan criollo (bread), sweating in tropical heat, cooling-down with piragua (ice) treats, hiking in a rain forest, swimming in a waterfall, walking through a bat cave, drinking fresh mountain spring water, sipping fresh parcha (tropical passion fruit) juice with seeds still in the nectar, playing baseball in a uniquely Latin environment with Merengue music playing during the whole game, meeting kids their age from a different city 1,000+ miles away from Milwaukee, and much more!