Youth Baseball Team Authorized by OFAC to Travel to Cuba is Seeking Donations
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a specific license (License No. CT-11722) authorizing the Twin State Peregrines, a youth baseball team of 11 and 12 year-olds from New Hampshire and Vermont, to travel to Cuba and play a series of games against youth teams on the island.
While the Major League Baltimore Orioles received a license to play the Cuba national team in Havana in March 1999 (The O's won 3-2 in 11 innings), this will be the first youth team to have received approval from OFAC to travel to Cuba since the U.S. embargo on Cuba was first imposed by President Kennedy in 1963.
The Peregrines will fly to Havana on August 9 and return on the 18th. In Cuba, they will stay at the Salesian Sisters' convent and school in Peñalver, just outside Havana. They will play games each day against youth teams from Peñalver as well as Havana. The players and coaches will also run baseball clinics for Cuban youths in the area.
The team is soliciting donations to offset the cost of the trip for the players and their families, which is estimated to be more than $40,000. As of July 1st, the team has raised only about $13,000. Donations can be sent to the following address:
- Hanover Baseball Association
- Cuba Trip Fund
- 2 Freeman Rd
- Hanover, NH 03755
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
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