Four hundred baseballs, 126 baseball bats, 47 helmets, 46 pairs of gloves and 15 catcher’s masks are piled to one side of the Goldstein’s garage in the Norkirk neighborhood.

The Goldsteins plan to ship the equipment to underprivileged youth who play baseball around the world.

And they have 13-year-old Spencer Goldstein to thank.

“It just feels nice to do something this big when you know it’s going to help somebody else,” said Spencer, who has played baseball since he was 2 years old. “…That’s nice to know that they can have that stuff and that I can make a difference.”

As a part of his bar mitzvah in March, Spencer’s family and members at his place of worship, the Temple de Hirsch Sinai, encouraged him to complete a mitzvah volunteer project, or a good deed, which is designed to teach young Jewish adults responsibility.

“There’s this idea in Judaism called ‘Tikkun olam,’ which means repairing the world,” said Spencer’s mother Meredith Goldstein. “And that’s something we’re encouraged to do all the time.”

Spencer chose to collect baseball equipment after he saw an ESPN story about how the Ugandan team at the Little League World Series last year had come so far, yet practiced baseball with unfavorable circumstances such as dirt fields, cracked baseball bats or no gloves and catcher’s gear.

Spencer began to seek donations from many local families earlier this year so that he could donate the goods by the end of May to Pitch In For Baseball. The national organization collects and distributes gently used youth baseball and softball equipment to underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world.

With help from his father, Spencer was able to collect the hundreds of donations by emailing family friends, families he knew from playing baseball and people associated with the Kirkland American Little League and Bellevue West Little League.

“A lot of it was individual donors,” Spencer said. “They gave most of the stuff. It was very generous of them.”

The Goldsteins also found unique ways to collect the donations. One Saturday during Little League tryouts, Spencer and his dad managed an “equipment swap” and after it was finished, they took what was left.

And during his bar mitzvah in March, a box was set out for friends and family – who had been emailed prior – to donate to Spencer’s cause.

“I think people were happy to have a place to give [the equipment],” said Meredith. “Every year they need new shoes because their feet grow, new bats because the kids are growing. You can’t necessarily use it so you feel kind of bad because the stuff is still in good condition.”

Meredith said as a way to honor Spencer’s hard work, some of the baseballs and batting helmets acted as table centerpieces during his bar mitzvah celebration.

While Spencer knows Pitch In For Baseball will distribute the goods to youth in any country who needs equipment, he and his mom do admit it would be special if the Ugandan team could benefit from their donations.

About four years ago the Goldsteins hosted two Ugandan students as part of a program with an organization called Sister’s Schools. The local nonprofit is registered in Washington, Uganda and east Africa with a mission to distribute school supplies to underserved schools. Children have their photo taken with their pencils, crayons or scissors, donate them, and then receive a photo of another child from around the world with their donated school supplies.

“It’s a great organization. It’s an organization that I’ve stayed involved with,” Meredith said. “It’s the idea of teaching little kids that they can have an impact on the world.”

In putting this much work into Spencer’s project, he’s realized that if he sets a goal and works hard enough he can accomplish his goal and maybe even “blow out” a goal.

“I would really like to thank all of the people that just donated equipment or that helped me, that encouraged me to accomplish my goal,” Spencer said.

To donate to Spencer’s baseball collection, email Meredith Goldstein at meredithgoldstein@hotmail.com. For more information on Pitch In For Baseball, visit www.pitchinforbaseball.org.