By Emma Snider
The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t just the local baseball team but also a source of community involvement and support. The Rays Baseball Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives and circumstances of those in need within the community. It focuses on aiding youth through education and wellness.
The Rays Baseball Foundation offers seven specified programs available to youth within the community. Each program focuses on a different area of growth and enrichment.
Reading with the Rays was founded in partnership with Suncoast Credit Union to encourage students to avoid reading loss over the summer. Students can win prizes, such as tickets to a Rays game, if they reach certain reading goals through participating libraries. Over 500,000 students have participated in the Reading with the Rays program.
In June, the foundation held its Rays Science of Baseball program at Academy Prep campuses in St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Tampa. The program involves fun lessons revolving around subjects like statistics and geometry.
Other programs, such as the Big Game James Club and the Rays Jersey Program, work to give back to the community youth. The Big Game James Club is a partnership with United Concordia Dental to provide support to foster children, and the Rays Jersey Program has donated over 100,000 tee ball teams with jerseys and hats, as well as helped with equipment costs.
The South St. Petersburg Neighborhood Initiative commenced following the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl named Paris Whitehead in South St. Petersburg. The program expanded on the topics of education and childhood wellness through the Great American TeachIn, the Rays Room and many more.
The Rays Baseball Foundation also provides scholarships to students in the Tampa Bay area, two being the Don Zimmer Memorial Scholarship and the Barry Jones Memorial Scholarship.
“We’re lucky to be able to live in a community with so many great nonprofits. We’re honored to be able to fund them through grants and scholarships and support all the great work they’re doing,” David Egles, executive director of the Rays Baseball Foundation, said. “We’re also incredibly lucky to use the platform of baseball to teach our youth really interactive educational programming.”
Even with the transition from Tropicana field to Steinbrenner field, the Rays Baseball Foundation has worked hard to continue providing its programs and servicing the community.
For more information about the Rays Baseball Foundation, visit www.mlb.com/rays/community/foundation-programs.
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