Teenagers from New England and the Dominican Republic worked together as teammates every morning for two weeks this summer to build this house for a family on the island as part of a Boston Red Sox program combining baseball with community service.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
Ten American teenagers traveled to the Dominican Republic this past July to not only play baseball with 10 teenagers from this island country, but also to work together as teammates on a community service project.
Peter “P.J.” Greenia, a 17-year-old from West Springfield, was among the 10 students from New England selected in 2024 for a program that brings together people of different backgrounds through the common appeal of baseball and community service. Called Lindos Sueños (Spanish for “Beautiful Dreams”), the program was created by the Boston Red Sox 20 years ago and is funded by the Red Sox Foundation.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
For two weeks each summer, 20 teens work each morning on a community service project in a Dominican community in need. Then they spend each afternoon playing baseball at the Red Sox Dominican Academy.
Greenia, a “huge” Red Sox fan who has been playing baseball since he was six, said he learned about the program when he got an email from the Red Sox.
“It looked just like any other advertising email, but it said applications were being accepted for the Lindos Sueños program. I was curious about what it was, so I looked into it,” he said.
He completed the application and then received an email back from the Red Sox asking him to participate in a videotaped interview. After he did that, Greenia got another email about a week later with a request for a Zoom interview with three of the program’s leaders.
“About a day or two later, I was formally accepted. A lot of the questions they asked were about why I really wanted to do this,” he said. “I was just honest — I enjoy helping people, I’d like to get into the electrical trades and I love baseball.”
From there, Greenia attended a meeting to learn more about the trip would and what would be expected of the U.S. teenagers.
“This trip was fully funded by JetBlue and the Red Sox. We were just asked to fundraise. But if we couldn’t reach our goal, it wasn’t a dealbreaker,” he said.
About five weeks before the trip, Greenia met his other U.S. teammates at an orientation session at Fenway Park.
“We got along really well. We had many of the same interests. When we arrived at our hotel, we met our 10 Dominican participants. We all quickly got to know each other and soon it felt as if we had known each other for a long time,” he said.
The community service project was building a home for a family in El Mamon, a town about 30 minutes away from the baseball stadium. Greenia said he thought he knew what he was going to see when he went into the town, but had no idea just how poor the community actually was.
“The home they had was just a shack being held up by tree branches, with a dirt floor and just a mattress for the family to sleep on. That was all they had to live in. Many other families were in the same situation,” he said.
What was most surprising to Greenia was that even though the family didn’t have much, they still seemed happy: “There was a great feeling of community. It really changed my feelings and perspective of the way of life back home in the U.S. after this trip.”
Although the teens didn’t always understand the language of their teammates, over the course of the two weeks, Greenia said they learned that their love of the game of baseball — and their understanding of the importance of community service — can serve as a unifier for people of all backgrounds and cultures.
“It was really hard at first, but knowing a little bit of Spanish before the trip made it easier to understand what the Dominican teens were saying toward the end of the trip. At the games, we could understand what they were trying to tell us,” he said.
Greenia said it was “great” to experience a different country’s way of playing baseball.
“They’re so passionate about baseball in the Dominican Republic — for some of them, it’s all they have. It’s what they love. Nothing can change the love for baseball when you are in the Dominican Republic,” he said.
The community aspect of the program, especially the home building, also had an impact on Greenia. He said he “loved” the construction part of the program.
“The teamwork, with everyone grabbing all the supplies together, being tasked with measuring and sawing all the boards and being part of hammering all the boards into place, was all to build a home,” said Greenia. “It showed us what true teamwork was meant to be in life, as well as on the field. It was amazing to see how it affected not only the family that got the house, but also how excited the entire community was to have us there.”
The West Springfield High School senior said his favorite part of the trip was the camaraderie of being together with a mixed group of kids from different backgrounds.
“I loved that we were all working toward the same goal of building a house together for a family in need,” he said. “But it wasn’t just building a house for a family — it was a house for the entire community to remember for the rest of their lives. They were so grateful just for our presence.”
Greenia said the trip was “like a dream come true” for him.
“I’m so blessed for this to have happened,” he said. “There’s nothing I could have wished for more than to be with the Red Sox organization, go to the Dominican Republic to help a community and play baseball.”
