A Frederick Douglass junior and baseball player, Matthew Perrine, recently died in a tragic car accident on Saturday the 26th. Our community planned a celebration of life on May 4th from 3 pm to 5:30 pm at Frederick Douglass High School.
These awful circumstances inspired our community to come together and celebrate all who Matthew was in a visitation service along with a moment of silence at home plate on the baseball field at 5:30. The family asked that people came wearing FDHS colors, Batman theme, or pink to honor Matthew.
At the service, FDHS varsity baseball coach, Braden Johnson, spoke many resonating words. “Matthew always cared about an opportunity to make another person feel better,” remembered Johnson, “no matter what battles he was fighting himself.”
Repeatedly everyone was reminded to celebrate the life of Matthew because he would have wanted people to remember the joy he was, not only mourn. The baseball team did a great job of that.
The baseball team was able to come together at the celebration to honor Matthew. “It was another opportunity to come together as a team,” said Bowen Houser, “to laugh about all the memories we had together.” They all were lined on the sides of home plate in bright pink shirts that read “FHDS 28 #playformatthew”.
This service was very well organized and planned by a lot of the baseball moms. I hope that it provided comfort to those mourning the loss and was a reminder of the lighthearted and funny Matthew Perrine. He clearly touched a lot of people, considering the turnout to the moment of silence alone.