Iowa boy makes baseball bats out of wood brought down by storm, raising money for community

Tommy Rhomberg.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CBS Evening News)

Tommy Rhomberg wanted to do something nice for a friend, and this act of kindness ended up benefiting his entire community.

The 12-year-old lives in Iowa, which was hit hard in August by a derecho. The storm had winds of up to 140 mph, destroying homes and bringing down trees. To cheer up a friend whose birthday took place amid the derecho, Rhomberg decided to take a tree branch that came down on his lawn and whittle it into a baseball bat to give to his pal.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.