When Keith and Laura Azzopardi gave birth to their son, Gavin, they noticed something was different about him.
"I remember she looked at me and she's like, what's wrong with his hands, and I looked at her and said I don't know." said Keith Azzopardi, noticing his newborn son's birth defect.
Turns out, Gavin was born with a rare birth defect which affects 1 in every 10,000 kids.
But if you ask the Azzopardi family, they would tell you that the defect barely affects Gavin.
"They always ask what happened to your fingers, I have to tell the story over and over again." said Gavin.
Gavin’s parents initially had concerns over his impairment and worried that he may not be able to write, or drive, like his peers.
"I was like he's never going to drive a car, is he going to write - is this something we're going to have to deal with forever, that's what you dream about with all your kids." said Keith Azzopardi of his son.
As their son grew, they noticed he started to develop an affinity toward baseball.
Although Gavin did well in his early baseball years, things got more challenging as he grew older.
“Well now they're getting older, and they're hitting line drives, he would catch a line drive and then his mitt would fall off,” said Keith Azzopardi, “So we're like 'oh he caught it!' And then, 'oh crap."
That’s when, his family says, Wilson stepped in to create a custom baseball mitt just for Gavin. And the added inducement? They did it for free.
The custom baseball mitt fits Gavin's hands perfectly and it wasn’t long before Gavin was back out on the field, making noticeable progress.
“Nothing really stops me. I can try, fail, and try again another time." Gavin said.
Gavin and his family are also part of the Lucky Fin Project, which connects local kids with similar birth defects. They say the support for their families and other has been outstanding.
You can find more information about the Lucky Fin Project here.