LEWISBERRY, Pa. - Like Cinderella arriving at the ball, the Red Land Little League U.S. Champions, being treated like royalty, rode into their celebration on a horse-drawn wagon on Saturday. Thousands of people filled Darrenkamp's parking lot, for the event, that included speeches of praise, a band, autograph signing and lots of food.
“It’s really cool for us to have a big celebration and a parade and for everyone else. It’s really cool for them to be out here," said second baseman, Braden Kolmansberger.
“Oh, I think they’re all pretty famous," added Braden's mom, Kristie Kolmansberger.
The players' moms were honored, on stage, Saturday for the important role they play in their boys' success. The team made it all the way to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport. They were undefeated, becoming U.S. Champions last Saturday. They lost the World Championship game to the team from Japan on Sunday, but played with all their hearts.
“Well, we’ve been so proud of these boys, all along, so it was just, it’s just been great," said Mrs. Kolmansberger.
So many people wanted to meet the boys, the line for autographs was at least a thousand deep. The boys say the attention has not gotten old.
“It’s really fun just still for us. So that’s fun" said Braden Kolmansberger.
Their signatures maybe worth millions one day! For now, they are helping to bring in big bucks for Red Land Little League. Darrenkamp's announced it was happy to sell t-shirts, for the team and decided to donate 100% of the profits. It added up to $248,000.
“It’s still there. It’s still insane. I can’t think of a bigger word than that so, the mere fact that, that check was for $248,000 from t-shirts sales so far is just nuts," said Red Land Little League President, Scott Sozanski.
Many other businesses also donated. Red Land Little League has investment ideas.
“We wanna host states here in a couple of years. We have a lot of improvements we are looking to do to our fields, possibly buying some land. Some charitable donations and so on and so forth," said Sozanski.
Local politicians also took part in the ceremony. They thanked the team for putting Red Land on the map and so positively representing their community, state and country.