August 15, 2024: Canada team players visit the Topps trading card tent in the fan zone

Among the huge assembly required to welcome 20 teams and around 300,000 fans to the Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport are Pennsylvania College of Technology students and staff.

Baking and culinary students and staff from the college’s Le Jeune Chef Restaurant are set to prepare meals for the competing teams, while paramedic students will help provide for the emergency medical needs of the thousands of spectators who attend each of the nationally televised series’ 38 games.

For the fifth year, Le Jeune Chef Restaurant, a live-learning lab for the college’s baking and culinary program, will provide three meals a day in the Dr. Creighton J. Hale International Grove at the Little League International complex, where teams are housed during the series. They will begin on Friday, when the first teams arrive. When all teams are present, they will serve 400 people per meal period — 1,200 meals per day.

Last year, the teams consumed over 900 pounds of bacon, 155 gallons of chocolate milk, 400 pounds of whole bananas, 45 gallons of ketchup, 760 pounds of scrambled eggs, 1,100 pounds of various french fries, more than 1,700 ice cream cups and over 4,500 feet of Fruit by the Foot.

The Penn College team will do most breakfast and lunch preparation at the Grove, with dinner being prepped at Le Jeune Chef and transported to the complex.

The culinary crew consists of five student interns, the restaurant’s professional staff, baking and culinary faculty, and other students who will help once Fall 2025 classes start on Aug. 18.

The interns, their hometowns and their majors are Ekaterina T. Arnold, of Mount Union (culinary arts technology); Ally A. Colon, of Philadelphia (baking & pastry arts and applied management); Jaylynn F. Lewis Dickson, of Philadelphia (baking & pastry arts and applied management); Steven R. Penley, of Chambersburg (baking & pastry arts); and Aj R. Velez Jr., of McAdoo (baking & pastry arts).

Graphic design student Benny M. Hornberg, of Pittsburgh, designed Le Jeune Chef trading pins for the culinarians to share with the participating teams. (No additional pins are available.)

Nine students in the college’s paramedic program will be part of the health care team.

The paramedic students work under the guidance of certified paramedics from Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services and UPMC Emergency Medicine physicians, who are on hand in the stadiums to provide for the emergency health needs of spectators.

The international event exposes the students to diversity in health care and to the time, preparation and interagency cooperation required to provide care at a large-scale event.

Helping to cover the series is an optional field-service learning exercise for the students as part of their Cardiology & Medicine course. In total, the nine students are scheduled for 194 hours. During their shifts in 2024, Penn College paramedic students saw 68 patients.

The paramedic students and their hometowns are Allen Bennett, of Montgomery; Myron Bingaman, of Mifflinburg; Gabriel Bittner, of Danville; Logan Deats, of Dallas; Alicia R. Freeman, of Ulysses; Colleen Haas, of South Williamsport; Christopher Kavcic, of Williamsport; Tiffani McNeill, of Watsontown; and Darlene Tobey, of Wellsboro.

When they are not at the World Series, the paramedic students gain additional hands-on experience providing care on various local advanced life support ambulances.

Penn College offers a 12-month paramedic certificate through its Workforce Development department. To learn more, call 570-327-4775 or visit www.pct.edu/paramedic.

The college’s School of Business, Arts & Sciences offers associate degrees and certificates in baking, pastry and culinary arts. To learn more, call 570-327-4505 or visit www.pct.edu/culinary.

For information about Penn College, a national leader in applied technology education, visit www.pct.edu, email admissions@pct.edu or call toll-free 800-367-9222.