Backed by the D-backs

Our sixth summer in the Dominican Republic was our first with the Arizona Diamondbacks beside us. The 2026 trip marked the first equipment drive Home2First has run in partnership with the D-backs — a partnership that changed both how much gear we could carry and how many kids we could reach.

The week of July 20 took us across the island. We were given a full tour of the Diamondbacks’ academy in the Dominican Republic, then spent the rest of the trip visiting several other youth academies — handing out more than 800 lbs of donated equipment, from bats and gloves to cleats, sunglasses, and uniforms, straight to the players training there.

Six years in, the mission hasn’t changed: collect quality gear in Arizona, raise the funds to move it, and put it directly into the hands of kids who play with everything they have. What has changed is the size of the team standing behind it.