June 5-20, U.S. Consulate General Vladivostok, along with the Primorskiy Kray, Vladivostok, and Khabarovsk baseball federations and partners in municipal administrations, carried out an extensive sports diplomacy project reaching over 800 children in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, and Khorol. Nick Cappuccilli, a coach at the California-based baseball organization Lifeletics as well high school coach and teacher, led clinics for youth baseball teams, master classes for coaches, and marketing advising sessions for baseball federation leaders. Mr. Cappuccilli also led several “Baseball Festivals,” energetic promotional events celebrating sport and healthy life styles with children from local summer camps. The festival in Khorol, a former Soviet airbase town now known for its agricultural dairy products was, as one social networker described it, a “blast that blew us up (in a good way)”: the Khorol event attracted 340 kids who enthusiastically followed their American coach’s instructions and then flooded social networks with raving posts and happy photos. Regional TV, online, and print media celebrated the project with a number of positive interviews and reports.
