From Tragedy to Triumph: Big Sticks highlight Little Buddy Foundation
Jun. 5—DICKINSON — A Southwest North Dakota charitable organization has been helping area youths since roughly 2018 and they welcomed one of the recipients of a scholarship on Saturday to Dakota Community Bank and Trust Ballpark for a unique opportunity.
The young woman is an athlete named Taylor Grill, who is from New Underwood, SD — by way of Edgemont, SD — and a current student at South Dakota State University. Taylor, who was joined by her mother, Diana Grill, at the game, threw out the first pitch at Astoria Field in recognition and to spread awareness of the Little Buddy Foundation, which has provided her with a prosthetic arm that helps her maintain involvement with rodeo — one of her passions growing up — and function in the arena using her abundant roping and riding skills honed when she was a youngster.
Taylor lost her arm in an automobile accident in early 2020. In the collision, Taylor was left with a broken left femur and right tibia and fibula and the left humerus in her arm was damaged past the point of reconstruction. The resultant amputation required extensive physical therapy, and as a rodeo athlete rendered her unable to excel in one of her favorite sports. Her younger brother, Cade, also was in the accident, but he sustained only minor injuries in the crash.
The new prosthetic arm provided by the Little Buddy Foundation has increased the range of activities she can perform and improved the quality of her life to the point that she is able to use the device to help guide the horse, while the roping skills she developed in her youth take over from there. She also is a standout volleyball player and continued in the game after she recovered from her injuries and returned to the court during high school.
"My whole family rodeos — my parents, my brothers — so I mostly use my arm for roping and riding, which I'm really big into, and doing some training," Taylor said. "Someone reached out to my Mom and kind of mentioned that there is a foundation that did a lot of that stuff for people with similar circumstances to me and so somebody sent the information along to my Mom and they reached out to her."
Her father, Jeff Grill, said the device has meant a lot to the Grill family in many ways.
"As a family, we always assume that we're going to have setbacks of one size or another that we didn't think would ever come, and once something happens we pull up our pants and keep on moving and this was just a bigger version of that," Mr. Grill said. "But the whole family treated it like normal and we just kind of kept moving on, her more than probably the rest of us. All the kids, her older and her younger brothers, were in involved in those things, rodeo-related, just because we were ranch people and that's kind of what we do and whether it had to do with taking care of cattle or tagging or chasing cattle or sorting ... we all of us competed in rodeo events and that was a big part of our after-the-day's done activities and we went to rodeos on the weekends.
He added, "She (Taylor) in particular was involved with that stuff from the get-go and probably didn't realize her passion for it until it looked like there was a possibility that it might not happen again, and this really ramped up her interest and it was almost like there was somebody out there who says, 'I can't do this, and now I have to.'"
Mr. Grill added that the device has had a therapeutic effect on Taylor, saying, "This whole thing has taken her and made her mindset so that she has to decide, 'What do I do next to make everything better for me and everybody else around me?'"
The Little Buddy Foundation is run by Killdeer High School head basketball coach Greg Pruitt. Each year, Coach Pruitt and the organization choose a recipient or recipients for donations to help them recover from their injuries, particularly by offering prosthetics to those who suffer catastrophic injuries. The idea came from a mentor of Pruitt's, the legendary basketball coach Don Meyer, who had been in an accident in 2008 that required the amputation of his lower-left leg. The resultant device, which Meyer referred to as his "little buddy," provided him a range of mobility and served as impetus for Pruitt's foundation.
"Coach Meyer played a major role in my life as a head coach and he taught me a lot about the game of basketball," Pruitt said. "But he taught me more about life, and when he passed away I wanted to honor him."
Taylor practiced with Badlands Big Sticks players before throwing out the first pitch and got to meet other members of the team and stuck around for the game afterwards versus the Sawtooth (Idaho) Sockeyes, which the Big Sticks won. The Big Sticks now stand at the top of the Independence League with a 10-2 record on the season.
"I think it was just awesome that they're able to do this for so many kids that really need it," Taylor said. "Especially for me, because rodeoing was kind of a family hobby for me, and I've made so many friends doing rodeo that honestly it's become a part of my life and I remember thinking after my accident that I wouldn't be able to do it again, and that really kind of hit me.
Taylor added, "But through coach Greg and the Little Buddy Foundation it kind of made that possible and that's something I never thought would happen. Knowing what it means for me and what they do for kids all around the country is awesome. This community seems very nice and very welcoming, and I've actually never been to a baseball game before, so this is pretty cool to be able to do this at my first one."
The Big Sticks organization routinely affords groups and foundations the opportunity to spear awareness as a part of its community outreach. Owner Dave Oullette said it's an important part of the mission of the team, adding, "We just love the opportunity to have non-profits coming in that can do some fundraising amongst the big crowds that we bring every night here. So we're glad to be able to help out any way that we can and the Big Sticks donate a portion of the ticket sales to all these foundations each night as well and that's what really drives the things that we want to do here."
Jason Watson — who is general manager of the team and has been a member of the community for a long time — echoed those sentiments, saying, "Greg (Pruitt) has done great things with the Little Buddy Foundation and that's part of why the Big Sticks are here: To help the community, especially when it comes to kids and to be able to raise money for them, especially kids with disabilities ... we take pride in what we do in being able to give back to the community."
The Big Sticks will be on a nine-game homestand from June 9 through the 19th, with a three-game series versus the Freemont (Neb.) Moo from June 9 to 11, the Sockeyes from June 13 to 15 and the Spearfish (SD) Sasquatch from June 17 to 19.
For more information about the Little Buddy Foundation or to learn about ways to contribute to the organization, please visit the website at
