Because he is hearing disabled, Jess Elliot, 15, of Brewer is home-schooled.

But that doesn’t keep him from participating in some of his favorite activities, school-related or otherwise.

Jess is active in 4-H, and he likes playing sports, he wrote, “but I love playing baseball. I crave playing baseball.”

“You stand on the field, waiting for that crack of the bat and you spring into action; or you’re pitching, and the ump yells ‘STRIKE!’ What a great feeling.”

When Jess was in the sixth grade, he didn’t make the middle school team, his mother, Donna Elliot told me, so he looked for a place to play.

He found that place at Airline Community School in Aurora, where the Jets needed one more player to make up a team.

Jess played for the Aurora Jets through eighth grade.

“They are a great bunch of guys,” he wrote of the youngsters in fifth through eighth grade who, without question, graciously welcomed him as one of their own.

“They are a fantastic group of kids,” Donna Elliot said.

“They’re the happiest bunch of kids, who are just hoping to win a game.

“They are so nice. They never made him feel like he was any different. He was one of them. As soon as they figured out his name, it was as if he’d been there all along.”

But while the Jets had Jess to complete their team, they didn’t have the one thing most other teams do: proper uniforms and proper equipment.

They were given old uniforms from another school, but those quickly fell apart, during a game, and the youngsters found themselves laughing with each other “as our teammates tried to run bases holding up their pants,” Jess wrote.

“But that was OK, because we were all playing spring baseball; we were on the field and playing ball.”

Principal Ralph Russell said nine boys make up this year’s team, representing the school of 48 pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade.

They wear sweat pants and shirts, and the only thing they have in common, Donna Elliot said, is their hats.

For a couple of years now, Jess has been wanting to get new uniforms for the Aurora Jets as a way of saying thank you for making him part of their team.

To that end, he has launched a community service 4-H project to obtain baseball uniforms and equipment for the Aurora school.

Jess Elliot wants to replace those sweat pants and caps with complete uniforms and equipment when the Jets’ season opens this spring.

Donna Elliot said her son has three pairs of gray baseball pants but he’s looking for donations of more gray baseball pants that will fit boys in grades five through eight; wine stirrups; wine belts; and baseball shirts which, he admits, at $25 each are expensive.

He also is asking for donations of used bats, balls, baseball gloves, and batting gloves.

The Jets really need an ample supply of baseballs, Donna Elliot explained.

On their field, “when the good hitters really hit the ball well,” she said, “the balls land in the nearby blueberry bushes, which are off school property, and the players can’t retrieve the balls because they could destroy the plants.”

If you can help Jess Elliot with this wonderful project, please do.

He has two drop-off sites for uniforms and equipment: The children’s section of the Bangor Public Library at 145 Harlow St., and at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension office, 307 Maine Ave. in Bangor.

Any financial donations are tax-deductible and can be mailed to Airline Community School, 26 Great Pond Road, Aurora 04408.

The Elliots will gladly pick up any contributions if you call them at 989-0899.

My sincerest condolences are extended to the family of Jane Saxl, who died earlier this month in Florida.

I first met Jane when she moved to Bangor in the mid-1970s and joined the League of Women Voters, of which I was a member.

I admired Jane’s intellect and dedication to the issues we considered that affected our community, state and nation, but I admired her even more when she chose to put those ideals and values on the line and run for public office.

Regardless of politics, I considered Jane one of the most honest, caring and sincere public servants I have known.

Her first concern was always what was best for us, and she never let us down.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.