Travel softball team donates toys to kids in Orleans County

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Aubrielle Barry, a member of the U14 NY Inferno travel softball team, is shown with leaders of the Elks Lodge in Albion this morning. Mike Jenks, the Exalted Ruler of the lodge, is at left and Richard Robb Sr., the Leading Knight and President of the Elks Riders, accepted toys and gifts donated by Barry’s softball team.

Barry plays shortstop and third base for the team that includes about a dozen girls around Western New York. The team and their families all donated to the toy drive that will go to kids in Orleans County.

The Elks will work with Frosty and Friends, a bikers’ charity based in Albion, to distribute the toys to local children.

Barry’s parents, Chris and Lisa Barry, are members of the Elks Lodge. Aubrielle’s grandfather, the late John Persia, was a long-time member of the Elks.

Provided photo

The NY Inferno U14 team is shown with some of the toys they donated. From left include Savannah Durham, Kristina Rivera, Charlotte Henderson, Elise McDuffie, Gabby Bender, Aubrey Schwimmer, Lyla Morse, Arnie Sturtevant and Aubrielle Barry. Missing from photo: Gabriella Boitschenko, Ava Wilson and Olivene Infante.

The team practices two or three times a week and plays in many tournaments. The next one will be an indoor tournament in Pittsburgh Dec. 21-22.

The NY Inferno have won 10 championships the past two years, and five runner-up titles.

Barry, a ninth-grader at Albion, played varsity softball for Albion as a seventh- and eighth-grader. She wants to play softball in college after Albion.