It’s hard to believe that the college baseball season is already starting to wind down. We’re at the last weekend of the regular season, but postseason excitement is around the corner. Conference tournaments, regionals, super-regionals, and the College World Series will make the next five or six weeks fun.
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I don’t know what kind of postseason Grand Canyon University is in for at 30-22 overall and 13-8 in Western Athletic Conference play. But one player is getting attention for his selfless actions off the field.
Senior infielder Eli Paton is batting .281 on the season and has hit nine homers, but he’s giving back to help sick kids feel more welcome in the hospital. An unlikely partnership with a childhood friend has blessed him with an inspiring way to give back.
Paton has known Josie Hull since kindergarten. Hull’s tough life as a former conjoined twin with loads of health issues and long childhood hospital stays inspired her to start a nonprofit called Once Upon a Room that decorates children’s hospital rooms.
“In those days, when I had to go to the hospital, I would just see blank walls,” Hull told D1 Baseball. “My (adoptive) mom (Jenny Hull) started decorating my room with things from our house so it didn’t feel so much like a hospital. Then my mom brought a nameplate for the door of my hospital room. Once she did that, every doctor and every nurse said, ‘Hi, Josie!’ They recognized me for me.”
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Hull and her mom have decorated more than 5,000 hospital rooms, and Once Upon a Room now has a presence in 45 hospitals across 14 states. Paton has been involved with Once Upon a Room since middle school, and he’s part of the board of directors for the organization.
“Josie is amazing,” Paton told D1 Baseball, “and we all wanted to be a part of this. It has grown to be a special thing.”
During Christmas break, Paton enlisted a couple of his teammates to decorate a room for a little girl at Arizona Children’s Hospital. Other teammates have pitched in since.
“They said it was super humbling,” Paton recalled. “They were grateful for the opportunity. It was monumental.”
Paton says that helping sick kids through Once Upon a Room is more rewarding than scoring runs.
“The RBI helps the team,” Paton said. “But Once Upon a Room helps so many kids and their families. Putting a smile on the faces of these kids — there’s nothing like it.”
“Decorating these rooms helps so much,” he added. “After we decorate, the room feels like a place where the child can recover. It changes everything instantly.”
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Grand Canyon head coach Gregg Wallis said that Paton is a natural leader for the team. He pointed out that Paton’s work with Once Upon a Room naturally grows out of his character and selflessness.
“Eli’s positive energy rubs off on everybody,” Wallis said. “Whether he has a good day on the field or a bad day, he never makes it about him. It’s always about the team, and that correlates to the work he does with (Once Upon a Room). It’s a tremendous cause.”
Whether or not Paton plays pro baseball, this kid’s going places. With a heart and attitude like his, he’ll find a way to serve others no matter where his career takes him.
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