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About Vias RD
Before there were programs,
there were people.
Vias RD grew out of years of relationships in the Dominican Republic, a love for Barahona, and a belief that young people deserve more than a dream with no plan B.
How We Got Here
It started with a mission.
It became a commitment.
In 1998, Brian Straley arrived in the Dominican Republic as a nineteen-year-old missionary. He served across the South — from Santo Domingo West toward the Haitian border — in communities including Bayona, Herrera, San Cristóbal, Los Alcarrizos, Las Matas de Farfán, Haina, and Barahona.
Most missionaries finish their service, go home, and move on. Brian went home, but the Dominican Republic never really left him. Over the next twenty-five years, he kept returning. Friendships deepened. Families became familiar. Barahona became more than a place on a map.
Vias RD was not born from a marketing plan. It was born from relationships that refused to fade.
Founder Story
Some stories never let go.
Vias RD did not begin with a strategic plan. It began with relationships built more than twenty-five years ago.
Missionary. → Friend. → Mentor. → Founder.
Founder & President
Brian Straley
Brigham City, Utah
In 1998, nineteen-year-old Brian Straley arrived in the Dominican Republic as a missionary. Like most missionaries, he expected to serve for two years, return home, and move on with life.
Instead, he fell in love with the people.
During his service throughout the southern region of the country—including Barahona—he built friendships that never disappeared. When his mission ended, he returned home, but he kept finding reasons to come back.
For more than twenty-five years, Brian continued visiting the Dominican Republic. Not because he was building an organization. Not because he had a nonprofit plan. Simply because the relationships mattered.
Along the way, he saw talented young people facing barriers that had little to do with effort or ability. He saw students with enormous potential but limited access to educational support, mentorship, technology, and opportunity.
He also saw something uniquely powerful about baseball. In the Dominican Republic, baseball opens doors, creates relationships, and brings communities together. What if it could also become a pathway to education and long-term opportunity?
That idea eventually became Vias RD.
“We don't just want these kids to play baseball. We want them to graduate. We want them to have choices.”
Today, Vias RD exists because one relationship became another, then another, and eventually a community of people committed to creating pathways forward for Dominican youth.
Why We Stayed
We met people
we could not forget.
It would be easy to describe Vias RD as a response to poverty, education gaps, or the pressure young athletes face in the Dominican baseball system. Those things are real. But the deeper reason is more personal.
We stayed because of families who trusted us. Coaches who showed up every day. Students who wanted more. Boys who loved baseball but needed school. Girls who deserve their own opportunities. Leaders in Barahona who were already carrying the work long before anyone outside noticed.
Vias RD is not a project we brought to Barahona.
It is a relationship we are helping build.
The Team In Barahona
Locally led.
Always.
The daily work of Vias RD happens because trusted leaders in Barahona know the students, the families, the schools, and the community.
On The Ground
The boys are not a program.
They are the reason.
The story of Vias RD is written in the daily life of Barahona: practices after school, Saturday games, meals together, school accountability, families asking for help, and young people learning they are worth investing in.
From One Team To Many Vias
Baseball opened the door.
The mission became bigger.
Vias RD began by helping boys stay connected to school through baseball. But the more we listened, the more obvious it became: the need was bigger than one sport.
Students need education support. Girls need opportunities of their own. Families need trusted relationships. Communities need spaces where young people can learn, grow, and build skills for the future.
That is how a baseball effort became Vias RD: multiple ways forward, rooted in one community.
First
Baseball Built Trust
Then
Education Became Central
Now
The Vias Are Growing
Board & Advisors
Volunteers helping guide the mission.
Vias RD is supported by volunteers who bring experience in operations, education, outreach, donor relationships, youth development, and nonprofit leadership.
Brandon Byers
Vice President
Operations and organizational management.
Cheryl Pehrson
Board Member
Youth development and nonprofit leadership.
Samantha Pehrson
Board Member
Education equity and youth empowerment.
Melanie Ogletree
Executive Director
Outreach, relationships, and partnerships.
Debbie Straley
Board Member
Longtime support and belief in the mission.
Tiffany Pintor
Director of Education
Education support, cultural insight, and community dignity.
Board and advisor bios will continue to evolve as the organization grows.
Looking Ahead
Barahona today.
More communities tomorrow.
Barahona is where the relationships are deepest and where the Vias model is being built. The long-term vision is not to spread thin. It is to build deeply, strengthen the model, and eventually partner with additional Dominican communities when the time is right.
We are not building programs for attention.
We are building relationships that create opportunity.
Join the story.
Whether you donate, volunteer, follow along, or share the mission, you become part of creating more ways forward for students and families in Barahona.