Little League Cookout / Grand Slam Parade
It was an evening for picnicking, parading, pin-passing and peerless pride as Pennsylvania College of Technology helped mark the Aug. 20 start of the 2009 Little League Baseball World Series. The festivities began with an on-campus cookout for the 16 tournament teams, followed by a Grand Slam Parade that welcomed them to Williamsport ... and showcased a substantial Penn College presence in the community observance. Among those in Division Three of the parade – which followed West Fourth Street eastward to Market – were President Davie Jane Gilmour, players and coaches on the college's conference-champion baseball squad, vehicles from the Penn College Motorsports Association and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Mini-Baja team, the Wildcat mascot, and a cohort of ambassadors, freshmen and alumni. (Little League Baseball also has posted a photo gallery to its 2009 World Series Web page.)
— Photos by Jennifer A. Cline and Tom Wilson, news bureau writer/editors
Penn College's Wildcat mascot gets a hero's welcome.
College baseball players ham it up in the parade staging area.
President Davie Jane Gilmour greets the Series' Europe Region champions.
Student Ambassadors carry a college banner and lead the first four teams from main campus to the Grand Slam Parade staging area.
Wildcat baseball alumni Curtis Taylor ’05; Paul Hileman, ’97; and Austin Upright, ’06, join their mascot on the parade float.
Penn College Pride in The College Store’s satellite location downtown.
Aptly gathering on a campus where "nontraditional by gender" is becoming passe, the two girls on this year's World Series teams – Canada's Katie Reyes and Middle East-Africa's Bryn Stonehouse – join chaperone Carol Weinhoffer.
Tina M. Miller, advertising and information coordinator (and one of the tireless organizers of the college's Little League efforts) walks alongside a Motorsports Association vehicle.
The Penn College Wildcat is mobbed by team members, all wanting some "face time" with their furry new friend.
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers prepares to show off its Baja vehicle.
Members of the Japanese team drink in the applause.
The Wildcat mingles with the downtown crowd.
President Gilmour welcomes teams to a campus cookout in their honor, preparing to dispatch blue-shirted Student Ambassadors to distribute commemorative pins to the World Series participants.
Penn College Ambassadors and baseball players welcome Little League to Williamsport.
The Mini Baja team demonstrates the off-road vehicle it manufactured and competed with against 100 other college teams this summer.
Tom F. Gregory, associate vice president for instruction, talks with the New England Region champs.
Already comfortable in his new surroundings, a Japanese player readily shows his confidence.
The Wildcat and President Gilmour prepare for the trip down West Fourth Street.
Ambassador Bradley S. Jackson joins two Northwest players in some impromptu dance moves.
The Latin American entry and its team "uncles" are escorted to a picnic outside the Bush Campus Center.
Little Leaguers – and one not-so-Little Leaguer – show that ballplayers come in all sizes.
Baseball coach Chris Howard and Wildcat bat girl Cynthia Howard.
Thomas F. Speicher, video production developer (and veteran of Little League Baseball World Series broadcasts), briefs Student Ambassadors prior to the teams' arrival.
The Caribbean team alights from a River Valley Transit bus, which carried them to campus from South Williamsport.
Potential "competitors" have no problem getting along off the field, as youngsters from all corners of the globe meet on common ground.
The back-to-back Penn State University Athletic Conference baseball champions parade down Fourth Street.
Mid-West players hone their whistling skills, with the help of a Latin American friend.
The Penn College Motorsports Association showcases its handiwork.
Mexico's players move through the food line, filling their plates with goodies from the college's School of Hospitality.
The Aqua String Band returned to the parade for the second time.
A sea of color fills the embankment west of the Bush Campus Center, as varied team members mingle in the shadow of the dining tents.
A menu of hot dogs and hamburgers is no match for cross-cultural appetites.
Representatives of the freshman class welcome the world to Williamsport.
Hospitality servers don appropriate athletic jerseys for their evening duties.