Person of the Week: Jon Farrar

Feb. 17, 2006 — -- Jon Farrar, 12, has loved baseball since he was old enough to hold a bat. He plays for the pony league in tiny Pleasant Plains, Ark.

"Baseball is my life," Farrar told ABC News. "I live, eat, sleep, dream it. When you step on the field you can just feel it. And just knowing that every pitch could be the one that goes over the fence."

Farrar was an all-star first baseman in his league, but he has big league dreams: to someday play for his favorite team, the New York Yankees.

"My favorite thing is my Babe Ruth poster," he said.

Farrar wanted more than anything to see the Yankees play this summer in the house that Ruth built: Yankee Stadium.

"We've been saving for two years," he said. "Part of my birthday money, part of my Christmas money would go into the Yankee account, is what we called it. And whenever I did chores around the house, I'd get a little bit of money put in and so it ended up equaling about a thousand dollars."

But in January, Farrar found out that the middle school where he knows the names of all his classmates was going to be closed. "Just the fact of knowing that I could be miles and miles away from them, I just couldn't imagine that," he said.

The folks in Pleasant Plains didn't take the news lying down. They started a fundraising drive to save the school. And Farrar made a tough decision to donate all his savings, $1,000, to the cause.

"I prayed about it," he said, "and my heart told me that was the right thing. No one would ever think that a small community like this could raise that kind of money, but little towns can band together, and I think we've proved that."

The publicity from his generous act produced an outpouring of support. More than $400,000 was raised in 30 days.

"He moved the community to do what needed to be done to save the school district," said Charles Vondran, Midland School District superintendent.

The story would be pretty good if it ended there. But as Yankee great Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Farrar received a letter from Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner. "Jonathan, I couldn't be more proud of you," it read, "and it takes quite a man to give up his personal dream for a higher purpose."