MLB All-Stars go big for kids

Boys & Girls Clubs get $5M

NORTH L AU DERDALE — Nearly 21⁄2 months before the AllStar Game puts South Florida in the national spotlight, Major League Baseball and the Miami Marlins took the first steps last week to ensure the event leaves a lasting benefit to the region.

Several MLB officials toured Boys & Girls Clubs in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to highlight renovation projects at three teen centers that will be part of the 2017 All-Star Legacy initiative.

Those are among several projects selected by the Marlins Foundation to receive funding from $5 million to be directed to local and national charities through proceeds from the Gatorade AllStar Workout Day on July 10, prior to the Home Run Derby at Marlins Park. The 88th All-Star Game will be July 11.

“More than just bringing these great players into the community, we want to leave this lasting legacy,” said Thomas Brasuell, vice president of community affairs for MLB. “The Marlins have picked six really tremendous projects that are really going to expand the territory the Marlins serve.”

In addition to renovations to Boys & Girls Clubs in North Lauderdale, Belle Glade and Kendall, funding will go for improvements to baseball and softball facilities at two parks in Miami, the military hospitality lounge at Miami International Airport, and a new mobile eye unit at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Officials at the Leo Goodwin Teen Center in North Lauderdale are hopeful the upgrades will

make the aging facility more appealing to teenagers and help reverse declining attendance, which is occurring at many Boys & Girls Clubs across the country.

Jill Arbogast, assistant director at the center, attributed the trend to “teens are busier. They think [Boys & Girls Clubs are] for kids. So this whole revamp will make it very teen friendly and very cool for the kids to hopefully bring them back in the center and get them off the streets.

“We’re real excited as far as the technology that’s going to happen.”

That will include improvements to the center’s computer lab, game room and lounge areas, as well as the club’s recording studio, where teens have an opportunity to record their own music and produce music videos.

“It’s going to take the center into the 21st century,” said Di Maharaj, chief of club operations for the 12 Boys & Girls Clubs in Broward County.

Arbogast said kids at the center were given an opportunity to provide input on the project before plans were finalized by MLB.

“We tell the kids it’s their club. So everything we do we want their input and to see what their opinion is. They gave a lot of insight and are really looking forward to it,” Arbogast said.

The Boys and Girls Clubs have been at the forefront of MLB’s AllStar Legacy initiatives for 20 years, beginning with the 1997 game in Cleveland. That coincided with the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier with the Dodgers and Larry Doby following him as the first African-American in the American League with Cleveland.

Brasuell recalls Doby at the dedication of five playgrounds in Cleveland that year saying the objective of the All-Star Legacy was “‘to make these cities better places after the AllStar Game leaves.’ Pretty much over 20 years we’ve been true to that mission.”

MLB and the host clubs have during that time donated about $80 million to national charities including the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, Boys & Girls Clubs and to various local organizations in the cities where the games were staged.

Brasuell said he recently spoke to the director of a Boys & Girls Club in Cleveland where one of the playgrounds was built in conjunction with the 1997 All-Star Game and “he said, ‘It’s still a great playground, we still use it to this day.’

“Most every one I have checked on are still in great shape, still serving the community.”