Mr. Ken Lorenz

Ladner coach Ken Lorenz, who has been with the group since his players were 10-year-olds, said he took them to the island nation to fill a need for both the children of Calabazar and South Delta.

"The trip is meant to help our kids open up their eyes to the world around them," Lorenz says, adding the youngsters of Calabazar would also benefit from a refurbished, modest baseball facility to help them enjoy the sport that is their country's passion.

"Everywhere you go in Cuba kids are playing, whether it's in the small villages on dirt fields or in the cities in a game of stick ball," Lorenz says.
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"We have so much here, and it put things in perspective, especially when the players came back home and realized how fortunate they are to have what they've got," says Lorenz, who is no rookie to this kind of trip.

Fielding friends

As a teacher at Richmond Secondary he has been taking his Global Perspectives classesâ€"and a container load of suppliesâ€"to impoverished countries around the world for the better part of a decade.

And on this occasion he saw a familiar sightâ€"bonding between the visitors and their hosts which transcended language and cultural divides.

And nowhere was that more evident than on the newly-built baseball diamond.

When the Ladner players took to the field in a friendly game with their hosts, they came face to face with just how little their opponents had in terms of equipment.

Lorenz says one of his players immediately stopped play when he noticed the Cuban team's catcherâ€"and the home plate umpireâ€"did not have any chest protection.

Play was halted and the appropriate safety equipmentâ€"donated by baseball associations from across the provinceâ€"was handed over.

"These kids are throwing in the 80s (miles per hour).And a tipped ball for a catcher could cause a serious injury," Lorenz says.

And the gesture had an immediate impact

"You should have seen how that went over," Lorenz says.
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They virtually left everything on the field," Lorenz says, adding the time in Cuba gave his team a new set of values.

"They (Cubans) didn't have that special glove or that $300 bat.Many teams had only one or two bats for their entire group of players," Lorenz says.

It began many years ago when Ken Lorenz (the program founder) attended a conference at Simon Fraser University that discussed global issues and awareness.

Ken Lorenz has taught in the Richmond School District for 24 years, split between Charles E. London and Richmond Secondary School.
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Presently Ken teaches in the English program at Richmond Secondary School.

Ken spends most of his non-teaching time developing and working on Global Perspectives 12.In the five years since it's inception, he has taken his students to the Amazon jungles of Ecuador; a deaf/mute orphanage in Vietnam; to work with Mayan Indians in the Highlands of Guatemala; and the rain forests of Indonesia.Last year, Ken took his students to the remote regions of Northern China, where they travelled to the remote village of Mu Lo to build a school library.

The last ten years of Ken's career, have been devoted towards changing the framework of student-thinking by focusing on global problems.

Ken's goal is to encourage students to lead pro-active lives, and get more involved in the world they live in.

Coaches Art Lehwald, Ken Lorenz, Brian Loney and Larry Waddell would like to congratulate all the players for their hard work and dedication this season.

Presenter(s): Ken Lorenz teaches Global Perspectives 12 at Richmond Secondary in Richmond, BC, Canada.

Ken LorenzKen created Global Perspectives more than ten years ago.Having taught the course for more than a decade he has moved away from his teaching role.Ken is still very much involved with the program and works closely with the team behind the scenes.Picture taken.........
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Last year was Kevin's first year teaching the course after Ken Lorenz (the founder) stepped down.

Global Perspectives is a local program, coordinated by Ken Lorenz, a teacher at Richmond Secondary School, providing opportunities for volunteers to work with low-income communities in developing countries.
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Global Perspectives is a local program, coordinated by Ken Lorenz, a teacher at Richmond Secondary School, providing opportunities for volunteers (principally grade 12 students from Richmond Secondary, but also teachers and health-care professionals) to work with low-income communities in developing countries.Most of its programs are in rural areas, in the poorest parts of the countries.Global Perspectives programs are small-scale and practical, and historically have been well received in the recipient communities: villagers have even held special celebrations to thank the volunteers.

Mr. Lorenz organizes the volunteers, arranges the materials needed for the projects and travels to the project to coordinate the work.He ensures that everything that is donated gets into the hands of the people who need it.