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BASEBALL

Baseball coach leads South Brunswick school-community relief effort for Puerto Rico

Greg Tufaro
Courier News and Home News Tribune
The South Brunswick school-community will hold a relief effort benefiting survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

South Brunswick High School baseball coach C.J. Hendricks, who takes great pride in being a Puerto Rican-American, and who has visited the island more than a dozen times, is spearheading a hurricane relief effort for its people.

The South Brunswick school-community will collect supplies for survivors of Hurricane Maria from 9 a.m. until noon at Crossroads South Middle School on 195 Major Road in Monmouth Junction on Oct. 21.

Specific items of need include bottled water, nonperishable foods, ready-to-eat meals, cleanup kits, home repair kits, tarps, trash bags, insect repellant, hand sanitizer, work gloves, extension cords, baby wipes, diapers, baby formula, pain relief medication for adults and children, canned milk, stomach relief and diarrhea medication, first-aid kits, blankets, pillows and towels.

Hermann Transportation in of Dayton is donating its time and services to haul the collected items to the National Guard in Mount Holly, from where the supplies will be prepared for shipment to Puerto Rico out of Fort Dix at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The load will be the 22nd Hermann Transportation has helped ship to hurricane victims.

READ: Donations being collected for Puerto Rico hurricane victims

READ: Perth Amboy natives provide 'Power for Puerto Rico'

READ: Hurricane survivors return to Central Jersey

According to the Washington Post, more than three weeks since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, 84 percent of the island’s population remains without power, 37 percent of its people are without access to clean water, 40 percent of the island’s wastewater treatment plants are inoperable and the death toll has risen to 48.

A man walks past a house laying in flood water in Catano town, in Juana Matos, Puerto Rico, on September 21, 2017.
Puerto Rico braced for potentially calamitous flash flooding after being pummeled by Hurricane Maria which devastated the island and knocked out the entire electricity grid. The hurricane, which Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello called "the most devastating storm in a century," had battered the island of 3.4 million people after roaring ashore early Wednesday with deadly winds and heavy rain.
 / AFP PHOTO / HECTOR RETAMALHECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

One of Hendricks’ former players, Alex Veglia is a student at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, pursuing a master’s degree in biological oceanography. He was on the island when the hurricane struck.

Veglia, whose apartment is made of wood, left his residence the night before the hurricane landed to live at a friend’s house, which is made of concrete. Veglia said La Parguera, a village within Lajas located on the island’s southwest corner where he lives, was among the island’s least affected areas, but that it was still devastated with downed trees, utility poles and roofs torn off homes.

Veglia said he was well stocked with water and nonperishable food items before the storm. He lived on those items for 18 days until he could get a flight off the island to New Jersey, where he returned last weekend to be with his family in South Brunswick. Veglia went more than five days without being able to communicate with his parents after the hurricane struck.

Alex Veglia, second from left, stands atop an old Spanish lookout in Guánica, Puerto Rico before Hurricane Maria struck.

He will be at Crossroads South Middle School on Oct. 21 to assist with the relief effort and to talk to those who are donating items.

“I want to make sure people understand that people (of Puerto Rico) really need this,” Veglia said of the South Brunswick school-community’s initiative, noting items such as bottles of water can be “a life-or-death” donation.

“I hope this inspires more people around the area to get more involved," Veglia said. "I’m happy to be able to say that my town puts effort towards helping people in need. I’m proud to be from South Brunswick right now. For my hometown and a baseball coach (Hendricks) I respected throughout my whole career, it’s just something that is great.”

Hendricks’ maternal grandparents were born and raised in Puerto Rico, as was his paternal grandmother. His father, Carlos, lived on the island for more than a dozen years before moving as a high school student to New Jersey, where he eventually played baseball at Rutgers University.

A collage of photos from C.J. Hendricks' baseball trips to Puerto Rico.

For C.J. and his father, baseball was a common thread connecting the United States to Puerto Rico.

On more than a dozen occasions, Carlos took a team of American baseball players, including his son, on five-day long summer trips to Puerto Rico, where the youngsters would practice in the morning, play a doubleheader against opponents from Puerto Rico at night and tour the island in between. The American players would bring hats, shirts and other gifts to present to their Puerto Rican counterparts in an unofficial baseball exchange program. The baseball trips helped Hendricks learn about his culture, which his parents and grandparents also instilled in him.

Hendricks has followed the careers of many Puerto Rican Major Leaguers throughout his life, and has  been inspired by the play and benevolence of the island’s most famous product, Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.

Hendricks cites a quote from Clemente for inspiring him to assist Hurricane Maria’s survivors. It reads: “If you have an opportunity to accomplish something that will make things better for someone coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.”

Hendricks said he hopes South Brunswick’s relief effort will be a home run.