12-Year-Old Boy Raises Money For Storm Victims By Creating Wooden Baseball Bats

Nov 17, 2020 by apost team

Batter up! After a destructive storm barreled through his community last August, Tommy Rhomberg, a 12-year-old boy from Mount Vernon, Iowa, stepped up to the plate. He went viral — and caused nationwide attention — when he started making wooden baseball bats for storm relief.

An end-of-summer derecho, a cluster of powerful thunder and wind storms, wreaked havoc on Iowa in August 2020, bringing winds of up to 120 miles an hour and severe damage to multiple cities. Tommy spoke with CBS News, where he explained that his family was minimally affected by the storm. Unfortunately, others in his community were not so lucky.

He went on to share that certain residents had most of their houses destroyed, which is why he felt compelled to help by raising money to assist with the rebuilding process. In the wake of the derecho's destruction, a friend of Tommy's had to postpone his birthday celebration. Knowing his friend adored baseball, Tommy chose to handcraft a baseball bat as a gift.

“I knew he loved baseball, so I started shaving off bark of a branch with knife, then dad found whittling tool, and just started forming the bat,” Tommy told ABC News.

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After 10 hours of work, Tommy produced "The Great Derecho" for his friend. Others in the community took notice and requested homemade bats of their own. What makes his bats particularly special is the fact that he uses wood from downed branches from the derecho. He recognized that this was a fantastic way to make money.

Supporting his mission, his parents invested in a lathe — a mechanical tool that rotates and shapes wood — for him. This enabled him to create bats quicker and more efficiently.

His mom, Amanda Rhomberg, told ABC News, “It’s just so funny because it’s just so Tommy. My hashtag on my post was this is Tommy. I mean his whole life has been what creative thing can I make and can I invent? And he’s just a problem solver. He’s not just a thinker, he’s a doer. He tries to think about what he is going to do and what he’s going to make or create and then he just does it.”

Tommy pledged to donate $20 from the purchase of each bat to The Greater Cedar Rapids Relief Fund. As of Halloween, he has crafted 115 bats and donated more than $2,500. Tommy had this to say about his project:

“I didn’t know people would be so interested. But since so many people in our area need help after the storm, let’s work together to make a difference for them.”

Grateful that his enterprise truly helped his community, Tommy likely feels relief that he was able to make such a contribution. However, he is no longer accepting orders at this time. He hasn't ruled out the possibility of making more bats in the future, though, and he would still donate money from the sales to relief efforts.

Speaking of all things baseball, a collector named Kevin Ashford has also been in the news because of his generosity. According to People, he gave his entire collection — a whopping 25,000 cards, which took 25 years to collect — to a 9-year-old girl named Reese Osterberg. Reese, herself a young aspiring and talented baseball player, lost her own baseball card collection when her family lost their home in the wildfires that ravaged the West Coast this fall. 

Luckily, Reese and her family escaped before the flames engulfed their house, but she was not able to grab her cards. Amidst the stress of the evacuation and making sure all the animals and important documents and heirlooms were safe, her dad also forgot to grab the precious collectibles. Her collection, containing 100 cards, took her three years to build. Initially, Kevin Ashford contemplated selling his massive collection on eBay. Upon hearing of Reese's story, he decided that doing an incredibly good deed was more important than cash in his pocket. No doubt his kindness put a smile on Reese's face. As he told KNTV, a local news outlet:

“I got to thinking about it, and I got to thinking about, ‘What do I have out here in the garage?’ And I thought, ‘You know what? Rather than sell these on eBay, I’m just gonna donate them. I’m gonna donate them all and put a smile on a little girl’s face.’”

What do you think of Tommy's entrepreneurship and generosity? Has it inspired you to do something to help your own community? Pass this story on to your friends and family members in order to spread the kindness of Tommy Rhomberg and Kevin Ashford.