“Dom!”

The drab, winter afternoon is pierced with the excited voices of some of Dom Porretta’s biggest fans as they jump out of their seats and run over to give him hugs. All of the seven college-aged students in the room have huge smiles on their faces as Porretta walks in. Porretta happens to be a baseball player, but that’s not why he’s so popular. His heart for the disabled and the friendships he has developed with them have given him a celebrity-like status in this room

Porretta is a 20-year-old journalism major in his junior year at Otterbein University. He also plays on the baseball team, works with a 19-year-old autistic student and volunteers at the Alternative Center, a place for disabled people to continue their education. His father is a professor of adaptive physical education at Ohio State, meaning Porretta has been going to all the wheelchair basketball games and Special Olympics from a young age.

On his second trip of the week to the second-story room of Heritage Church in Westerville, Porretta has brought along two of his baseball teammates to join him in volunteering. They will spend the next hour or so hanging out with post-high school men and women who are disabled.

Though it could be labeled “volunteer work,” the work seems to come naturally to these three young men. High fiving, laughing and even wrestling each other, they seem to be best friends with all seven students who are at the Alternative Center today. But how did all of this start?

In a home economics class his senior year of high school, Porretta met an underclassman autistic student named Ryan who needed a partner for the class. Porretta willingly joined up with the boy without being asked and started to develop a friendship with him. The next fall, Ryan’s mother contacted Porretta and asked if he would like to become Ryan’s care provider.

“Being a care provider for Ryan basically entailed just being a friend, being a buddy,” Porretta said. “We go do typical guy things. We go to sports games, we go shoot hoops, work out. We’re friends so it wouldn’t be like it’s any skin off my back.”

The county Ryan lived in started paying Porretta for the time he spent with Ryan, taking him to social events and other things that Ryan enjoys. Porretta has had the job, and more importantly, the friendship, for the past three years.

“Though I had been around (disabled people), I had never truly gotten that interactive relationship and friendship that I developed with Ryan,” Porretta said. “Through Ryan is how I got involved with Miracle League Baseball and the Alternative Center.”

Connie Warner started the Alternative Center and runs it with her fellow instructor Carol Peifer. They provide an educational environment for any of the disabled who choose to get involved. In Warner’s own words, the Alternative Center is “a place for people with disabilities to come and be accepted for who and what they are.”

The Alternative Center is important because it provides invaluable opportunities for people with disabilities who have already graduated high school and are no longer in any type of educational or social environment. “Graduation for them means being at home,” Warner said.

The students at the Alternative Center work on all kinds of educational subjects to become well rounded. They read stories and complete word searches to improve literacy or work on math problems to keep their arithmetic skills sharp. When Porretta visits, he sits down and gives one-on-one help to them for whatever they are currently working on.

Being on the baseball team and actively volunteering, Porretta thought it would be a good idea to try and get the whole Otterbein baseball team involved with the Alternative Center. The guys caught onto the idea and have all become volunteers. No previous training or experience is required of them, only the willingness to make a few new friends. “These guys absolutely love it. They’re always asking, ‘When are the Otterbein guys coming?’” Warner said. “Dom and the guys have just been wonderful.”

Porretta said, “The guys come back saying, ‘That was the best experience I’ve ever had. When are we doing it again?’ You go each week to help those people, and it comes back rewarding you more than you could ever imagine.”

For Porretta, the benefits of volunteering are obvious. “You walk through the door and their face lights up. They get a big smile, come over and give you a big hug and jump right into a conversation. You’re making a difference in their life one way or another, even just being there,” he said.

All of the faces are still bright with smiles as it comes time for the Alternative Center to adjourn for the day. It is apparent the presence of Porretta and the guys have made a big impact on the students today, if only to widen the smiles on their faces.