In June 2011, 14-year-old Tristan Triplett went on an FCA mission trip to the Dominican Republic and was blown away by the fact that hardly any of the kids there had their own baseball gloves.

“The boys there all loved the game of baseball, but many of them did not have their own equipment,” explained Triplett. “I gave my glove to one of the boys my age and he was shocked and grateful. It was awesome to see the joy it brought him.”

When Tristan returned home, he decided that he wanted to help get all those boys in the Dominican their own gloves, so he started the online Give One Glove campaign. Triplett had a web site created where he tells his story and asks for donations of new or used baseball gloves and other gently used baseball equipment.

“From the equipment donations, as well as the monetary donations that people gave through the web site, we were able to donate 50 gloves, two sets of catcher’s gear, batting gloves and 10 batting helmets to FCA Coach Mike Shaheen for when we went back to the Dominican Republic in July of 2012,” Triplett said.

Shaheen is the head of FCA Dominican Republic Baseball Ministry and helped lead the mission trip this past July for Triplett and his Team FCA Loganville teammates. The team also donated their FCA uniforms to the kids at the end of the week.

Even though baseball was what brought them all together, Coach Jeff Hughes and Team FCA Loganville knew that this trip was about more than just baseball. After each game, the players would share testimonies of what God has done in their lives. They also helped deliver and install water filters in a village, played baseball with young boys at an orphanage and visited and played with children from the village of La Duquesa.

“All the kids that I interacted with on both of my trips to the Dominican Republic made such an impact on me,” explains Triplett. “I am so glad that God gave me the vision of how I can give back to them one glove at a time.”

For more information on how to donate, visit www.giveoneglove.com.