JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2017-18 11
Giving Christmas Cheer
Baseball Serves
Thanksmas
A week before Thanksgiving, the
Jesuit baseball team served the
community at Trinity Café in support
of former Tampa Bay Rays manager
Joe Maddon’s Thanksmas initiative.
Team members and head coach
Miguel Menendez served about 300
homeless and needy over the course
of more than two hours, delivering
meals and drinks, busing tables, and
interacting with the guests, who were
seated and served similar to dining in
a restaurant.
Maddon managed the Rays
from 2006-14 before leaving for the
Chicago Cubs. This year, he brought
Thanksmas – his charitable eff ort to
feed the homeless using his mother’s
recipes – back to the Tampa Bay area,
coinciding with National Hunger and
Homelessness Awareness Week.
Representing Jesuit baseball and
serving at Trinity Café were: Jack
Anderson ’18, Javi Baldor ’18, Joel
Brewer ’18, Reid Clark ’18, Robert
Hales ’18, Matt McDonald ’18, Brett
Nevitt ’18, Connor Price ’18, William
Swantek ’18, McGuire Weaver ’18, Alex
Bryant ’20, Josh Mallitz ’20, Malachi
Woodside ’20, Jalen Niles ’20, Tyler
Stack ’20, Aiden Clark ’21, Jackson
Shembekar ’21, and Miguel Menendez ’21.
“For us to be able to provide
assistance was such a blessing,”
Menendez said. “Our guys really got
to experience what service is about.”
Agmen Christi, basketball continue
their tradition of gift giving
I n the days before semester exams in
December, many Jesuit High School
students made time to volunteer with
service organizations across the Tampa
Bay area, while the basketball team and
Agmen Christi both brightened the
Christmas of local migrant children.
The basketball team has “adopted”
a migrant family each of the past
several years. The children in the family
make gift requests, which the team
purchased this year during a 6:00am
trip to Walmart before school. Two
days later, on Sat. Dec. 16, the family
was invited to the Tiger Palace for the
Jesuit-Chamberlain basketball game.
Before the game, with the lights
dimmed, head coach Neal Goldman
escorted the children into the locker
room, where the team was awaiting
along with “Jesuit Santa” in his
blue Santa suit. Former team manager
Sebastian Rivers ’16 reprised his role as
Jesuit Santa this year, and he gave each
of the six children a large bag fi lled with
wrapped gifts. The basketball seniors
who spearheaded the effort were Max
Farfante, C.J. Holt, Cole Joffray, Chris
Livingston, Jake Meyers, Thierry
Moliere, Ryan Radke, and Nick Weir.
The next day, Sun. Dec. 17, the Jesuit
service club Agmen Christi continued
its annual tradition of providing
Christmas presents for dozens of
migrant children in East Hillsborough
County. Like the basketball team, club
members received specifi c present
requests and provided a wrapped gift
for every request.
Seven club members - Reece
Tappan ’19, Phillip Thompson ’19,
Raleigh Bulleit ’20, Cristian Troncoso ’19,
John Robbins ’18, and Diego Yepez ’18,
as well as Weir (who was part of the
basketball team gift giving the day
before) and assistant principal Fr. J.
Patrick Hough, S.J. - brought all of
the presents to the Palms of Dover
migrant community on Sunday
morning, where they engaged in gift
giving and interacted with the
children and families.
Scan to view a Fox 13 “What’s
Right with Tampa Bay” segment
about Agmen Christi’s gift giving
Joel Brewer ’18 serves a hot meal
Diego Yepez ’18 and Cristian
Troncoso 19 lend Santa an assist