LAKEVILLE — The rain wasn’t going to get in the way of Paul Vieira’s first visit back to the Ted Williams campground in 40 years. 

Vieira, who lives in Colorado Springs, came back for an alumni reunion at Ted Williams Camp in Lakeville on Saturday, July 13. 

Ted Williams Camp was a baseball camp co-founded by the Baseball Hall of Famer that operated from 1958 to 1986. 

“I’m going to walk around, as soon as the rain stops, to see if I recognize things that I haven’t seen in so many years,” said Vieira. Vieira was a camper from 1975 to 1978. 

The purpose of Saturday’s event was two-fold, to serve as an alumni reunion as well as a fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund, which raises money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Jimmy Fund was a charity near and dear to the baseball legend’s heart. 

Ted Williams Camp alumni get together for a reunion every two years, said Tina Murphy, who worked in the camp’s office from 1980 to -1985. 

This year, returning alumni received something special: a Ted Williams Camp hat. 

The camp was a breeding ground for baseball skills and lifelong friendships, which was clear in the strong handshakes, smiles and exchanges as alumni reminisced about shared experiences as campers, coaches and staff members of the institution.

Some, like Vieira and David Boyle, journeyed several hours to come to the event. Boyle, who was a camper from 1965 to-1967, came down from Franconia, New Hampshire with his son and two grandchildren. 

This was his first reunion. “Just to be back in the area, get the hat, bring the grandkids,” was “great” he said. 

The trip down memory lane led him to recall the unfortunate fate of the two baseballs he got Ted Williams to autograph, something that took him two years to work up the courage to ask for. 

He would later find his brother had put them to good use out in the field without asking permission, he said. 

About 50 people attended Saturday’s event, said Joe LoRusso, who founded the alumni group in 2008 and spearheads fundraising efforts for the Jimmy Fund. 

Through admission fees, a silent auction and donations, the alumni group hopes to present a check of over $10,000 to the Jimmy Fund next month, said LoRusso. 

The reunion gave Paul Vieira an opportunity to reminisce about when he got the chance to meet Ted Williams himself. 

“I think that was probably the memory that I remember the best. Seeing Ted out there telling you: ‘you need to level out that bat a little bit’, or something like that, that was cool,” he said.

Baseball coach Earl Mathewson said interactions with Ted Williams are also precious memories for him. Mathewson served as Director of Baseball Operations at the camp for the last five years the camp was open, from 1980-1985. 

Mathewson said those one-on-one meetings where Williams gave him coaching tips stuck with him. 

“Ted Williams was my Aristotle in baseball,” he said. “There was nobody better.” 

Saturday’s reunion was the fourth fundraiser this year put on by the Ted Williams Camp alumni, and the group has already raised $9,000 for the Jimmy Fund, according to LoRusso. 

LoRusso said he feels Ted Williams would approve of how the group is continuing his legacy of supporting the Jimmy Fund. 

“I bet he’d look down at us and say: “I’m proud of you people and what you’re doing,” he said.