Today we’d like to introduce you to Melody Valenzuela.
Melody, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
What started out as a supporting parent role turned into a full-time volunteer position! My oldest son started playing baseball at Pasadena Pee Wee League back in 2005. He enjoyed the atmosphere and his experience, so we continued to sign him up season after season. About a year or two later, his little brother joined him in the league. They both quickly immersed themselves in the sport, absorbing everything the coaches taught them! My husband was a volunteer coach so I volunteered to help him as “Team Mom”. In about 2008, he decided that in addition to coaching he wanted to volunteer on the Board of Directors for the league to help organize and grow the league our boys grew to call home. I decided to be the supporting wife and attend the meeting at which he was to be voted onto the Board. Little did I know, I would leave also as a member of the Board of Directors. My first position on the Board was as League Coordinator. This is the organizer of the Team Moms and all the fun Opening Day activities and fundraising! This was a comfortable fit for me, as I was already a Team Mom. This position was kind of an extension of that role in that I simply shared the information every Team Mom needed to know to get their teams organized for the season. After a few years, roles shifted and I became the Secretary of the league. I remained Secretary for a few years and at that point, had been on the Board for about 4 years. In the Summer of 2013, our leagues Annual Meeting was held and I became President of the league. I’ve remained President for the past 4 1/2 years and am now entering my 10th year on the Board of Directors. Throughout the years, I’ve still helped my husband as Team Mom for his teams and still volunteered in other organizations related to baseball.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road at all! There were many times, I felt like throwing in the towel and walking away from it all. In my almost 10 years volunteering for the organization, I would say my “worst year” by far was in 2012. Several Board Members were severely harassed, verbally attacked and made to fight to maintain their good name and reputations. As a “senior” member of the Board at that time, I was one of the Board Members who was directly targeted. It was at that point that I broke down, emotionally I was exhausted from trying to defend myself and my truth. I was almost defeated and found myself in tears almost daily for weeks. My husband and quite a few other league members, gave me the best advice possible, “Keep your head up and don’t quit because that’s exactly what they want you to do!”. I kept that in mind and didn’t quit! I fought to have my truth known. I fought to have those causing trouble removed and fought to bring the League back to a place of peace, fun and happiness for the kids we volunteered to serve. I kept a smile on my face, especially in front of those who targeted me. I made sure they never saw me cry! What they did at the time was horrible, but it helped me find the strength to keep going, even when things seemed overwhelming. Our league has been through quite a few challenges from our office/concessions building being robbed and burned down to find ourselves wondering how to run a league of 20 teams on 2 fields because the fire put us almost out of business. Our volunteers are amazing and helped get us back to some of the highest levels we’ve seen in recent years! We’re now a league of 35+ teams and over 450 kids participating each season! I’d say none of our struggles have been able to be too big for us to find a way to persevere.
Please tell us about Pasadena Pee Wee League.
Our company is a non-profit baseball organization. We specialize in youth baseball and are chartered through PONY Baseball. Our league is known for our size, our talented players and our trendsetting style in uniforms among many other things. We are the biggest youth baseball league in Pasadena and one of the biggest PONY chartered leagues in the Greater Houston Area. When it comes to summer ball (All-Stars), our league is known for being fierce competition on the field. We usually always have our teams qualify for Region tournaments and have had several teams make it beyond Region. In the past few years, we’ve had teams representing us and the City of Pasadena in the PONY State tournaments and also at the PONY Zone tournaments which bring talent together from Texas to Florida! Our teams have brought home numerous Championship and Finalist banners to the league! We’re immensely proud to be represented by such amazing, talented players and such dedicated Coaching staff!! We strive to set ourselves apart by making our league a great experience for all our players from league seasons through All-Stars.
We are constantly thinking of new ways to engage our members and get them involved in the league, be it through social media or hosting special events! We’ve tried to use our core member base to reach a broader scope of people in our area. We want our members to see that we try to do as much as we can to give back! In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, our league offered FREE registration to all our players, that served over 400 kids this past Fall! We also held a drive to collect supplies for those who lost everything and donated those supplies to several different places like churches that were used as temporary shelters. We also held a toy drive this past December accepting toy donations for our local Toys for Tots! We want to be known and remembered for all the great opportunities we present to our members but also to those in our area! Outreach is key and getting our members involved helps us spread our message of positivity and giving back!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have tried to be more active in my community in a much bigger way! It’s simply breathtaking to see the joy our organization has brought to so many families in our area. I would definitely have gone back and tried to reach a bigger amount of people a lot sooner. We’re seeing our efforts become more fruitful here lately because we have a great group of volunteers (Board Members and Team Volunteers) who are more adept to help and get things done! We have volunteers who take initiative and constantly bring new ideas to the table. I would have found those volunteers a lot sooner! 🙂
Contact Info:
- Address: Pasadena Pee Wee League
12oo Parkside Drive, Pasadena, TX 77502 - Website: www.pasadenapeeweeleague.org
- Phone: 713-941-7376
- Email: theboard@pasadenapeeweeleague.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ppwl77502
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/PasadenaPONYBaseball
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/ppwl
Image Credit:
Melody Valenzuela (Real Medge Visuals)
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