“Just like the ice and snow blanketed the ocean in the distance, Donnie Smith was also covered in multiple layers.

(Two pairs of long underwear, baseball pants, sweat pants, long sleeve shirts, pullovers, and a hoodie, to be exact.)

But just south of the Arctic Circle in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, it was still time for baseball.

Smith, a former Winnipeg Goldeyes pitching star (the second ever to have his number retired), boarded a Calm Air flight earlier that day, alongside Baseball Manitoba clinicians, Winnipeg Goldeyes general manager Andrew Collier, and a plane half full of goods to be delivered to the remote Canadian hamlet.”

“Twelve-year-old Newfoundlander Cailen Angnatok has yet to hit a home run.

But the bat, ball and glove he went home with thanks to an equipment drive for their small northern community, will mean he’s that much closer to crushing one out of the park.

“Do you think you're going to hit a home run someday?” asked his physical education teacher Matthew Mercer, who contacted vice president of the Paradise Minor Baseball Association, Susan Pennell, about setting up the drive.

“Yeah,” Cailen replied, a student at Jens Haven Memorial School.

The equipment will benefit Cailen and many other kids in the community of Nain, with some of the gear being kept at the school for kids from kindergarten to Grade 12 to use, and the rest going home with them so they can practice baseball on their own. “