Aviators Host Family Testimonials
Having been Empty-Nesters for four years, becoming an Aviator’s Host Mom was like having Kids home again .
I had to relearn how to meal plan and cook though! Having Kyle and Clay here made our home more lively and they were good company.
We laughed a lot , they did activities with us (besides the games), had good talks, got to know a few of the other Players, and introduced several of the guys to our extended family too. A favorite memory was the fantastic 4th of July celebration that we had at John’s brother’s house. The day that Clay arrived was the day of the May 20th storm, and all the Tornadoes dancing around us! Clay was older than the other players, and a complete opposite of Kyle , so they complimented each other. Clay is a good worker, communicates well ( texts like a girl – sorry Clay), has many different kinds of voices, and loves Babies!
Kyle earned the name “Sunshine”, has a Cool way of dressing, and uses a different lingo than us Kansans , so I learned many new words ! Made me feel ancient.
I call those words “Kyle-isms” . He hardly ate a meal without B-B-Que sauce!
We appreciate the fact that even though the guys are handsome, they were not Cocky, but have very good character, are nice, respectful, and were helpful, during their stay with us. We are looking forward to hosting the players next summer, hopefully -Our Same ones ( or Coach 🙂 )
I’d encourage anyone to give this fun Ministry a try — GO HAYSVILLE AVIATORS!!!
Carla Cannata
This summer we were host family for two players of the Aviators. When Kris first discussed the idea of keeping players I had no problem with it. We had been host family to AIA(Athletes in Action) players in the past and it was a lot of fun. This year being a host family was no exception. We had 2 great guys who are now part of our family, whether they like it or not. Clay and Kyle were both pitchers with very different personalities and both fit right in with our family. It was great doing outside activities with them even if it was just watching a rented movie. We enjoyed going to their games, whether they pitched or not, and would really encourage other host families to attend all the games they can. We will gladly host next year and if our guys return, we will strongly lobby to get them again. Thank you Kris for making our summer more fun.
John Cannata
Our baseball loving family expanded by one new member this summer as we hosted a young man from Oklahoma who was a catcher on the Aviators baseball team. Nick was a serious ball player and an all around good kid. An only child he was happy to be sharing a basement with our 18 year old son and we could not have asked for a more terrific house-guest. It was not only fun to attend the Aviator games to watch our host son play but also to meet other young men of like character who occasionally showed up at our dinner table for a home cooked meal. One fun note was that Nick and I shared the same birthday so we were able to share a party and cake celebrating his 20th birthday and my (ahhhhem) 29th birthday. Having a host son around for a few months was a good experience for our family and other then a 2nd messy room downstairs we have no complaints about our experience. The fact that Nick was a Christian was icing on the cake and he was an encouragement to us as we saw his faithfulness in attending Sunday services and participating in team Bible study. We would encourage other families to take that leap of faith and open your home to a summer league player. If you could experience a great kid like Nick you would become an Aviator advocate just as we have. Thanks Kris for hooking us up with such a perfect match for our family.
Huebert Family
When we agreed to host a baseball player last spring, we weren’t exactly sure what we got ourselves into! But after our season with Blake Crowe, from Kentucky, we are MORE than happy to do it again next year. He was a great addition to our family. Our kids were able to experience the excitement of a baseball game with our connection to one of the players. We hope to stay in touch with him in the future.
Arnett Family
The experience as a host family was a very rewarding experience. We enjoyed the player and getting to know his parents. We treated him as our “baseball son” for the weeks he was here.
We had impacts in several different areas, family, food and faith. We treated him as our own son, we talked about baseball but also many other areas of his life. We went to about half of the games he played in and got to know several other players on the team. We always made sure we were up when he came home from the games to talk and eat. The food impacted him because we made the foods he liked to eat, chicken and potato casserole. We tried to make sure that he did not have to go out to eat very often. Collin even cooked a Pineapple Upsidedown cake for us. Something that his mother makes that he likes. We also invited several of his team mates over for dinner after games too. Faith came from him attending church and other things he did, we also mowed a single ladies yard once every two weeks. We learned to have faith that he would make good decisions when he was out with his friends and that those decisions would be the correct ones to make. This was an area that was hard for us only having an 12 yr old and an 8 yr old. He ended up becoming one of the leaders of the team.
Kealey Family
We had a great experience as a host family this last summer to two very different young men on the team. This was our first experience and we were very nervous about who we might be matched up with. We have two younger children at home, so it was important to us to have someone that would be a good role model for both of them. The two young men that stayed with us seemed to become a part of our family very quickly and very easily!!! My husband developed a good relationship with both simply because he is such a fan of baseball and coaches our son’s team himself.
it was very easy to include them into our family and we tried to always include them in our activities, dinner, recreation, etc.
Maddux Family