History

ILB evolved out of the experiences that Ben Holman, Chris McCoy, Brandon Bleek, Brian Bauer and Ryan Church had during mission service in the Dominican Republic in the spring of 2006. Each had the chance to see first hand how baseball could be used as a tool to break down walls with young Dominican men. Originally ILB was primarily going to be dedicated to sending teams from the US to the DR and redistributing baseball gear. Ben Holman, ILB director and co-founder, had a large influence on ILB Foundations' mission and vision after he spent two summers volunteering with Children of the Nations (COTN) in the Dominican Republic where he worked and played baseball with young men in the region of Barahona.

During the summer of 2006 Ben Holman and Brian Bauer went to Barahona specifically to understand how baseball could be used to help out the communities of the Dominican Republic. The focus was to find out Dominican views of the problems surrounding youth and baseball, their ideas for solutions, and what positive role North Americans might play in these solutions. They worked with and interviewed many locals to find out this information. Please watch the ILB Documentary for more details.

Through their observation and interviews with Dominican coaches, players, teachers, and community members ILB came to understand that education and leadership are among the biggest problems many of these young men face. It was discovered that a large number of youth skip classes and drop out of school to pursue their dreams of becoming professional baseball players. This led ILB to focus its vision not only on sending teams and gear to the DR, but primarily to provide youth with the opportunity to pursue their dream of playing professional baseball while continuing their education.