ROCKIES’ FREELAND GOES OLD SCHOOL
Freeland gives supplies to elementary students, plans annual giveaway
Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland made a surprise visit Friday to the Denver elementary school he attended, and handed out supplies and backpacks to approximately 500 students at Holm.
Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland was back at his old stomping grounds Friday morning, hosting an event at Holm Elementary, where he handed out backpacks stuffed with supplies to the school’s approximately 500 students.
Freeland attended Holm from preschool through fifth grade and his mom, Susan, has worked as a secretary there for 16 years. It was Freeland’s latest, and largest, philanthropic effort that’s focused on giving back to Denver Public Schools.
“I have a lot of pride in this school system and this city, and being able to have the opportunity to give back like this means the world to me,” Freeland said. “I’ve been in this school and walked these halls. I went across the street to Hamilton (Middle) and then off to Thomas Jefferson (High). I want to help these DPS kids realize and chase their dreams, whatever they want to be.”
Friday marked the first school supplies giveaway Freeland has done, and through a partnership with Walmart the 25-year-old plans to make it an annual event for elementary schools in DPS.
The decision to start with Holm was part nostalgia — “I’m deeply rooted in this spot,” he noted — but also based on need. According to Holm assistant principal April Milow, 84 percent of the school’s enrollment is on free or reduced lunch, and many of the students bused to the school from the 23 surrounding apartment complexes are highly impacted by poverty and trauma.
Millow, Freeland’s fifth-grade
teacher, beams with pride when recalling how a much younger Freeland led his classmates to an unprecedented win in the faculty vs. students baseball game. He said the pitcher’s gesture Friday resonated with the school’s families and administration.
“We’re totally amazed about what he’s doing for our (DPS) community, and Denver as a whole,” Millow said.
“Our parents were ecstatic when we told them about the donation and that sup- plies would be covered. They got goose bumps; they started crying.”
The importance of the giveaway — and the presence of a famous alum among them — wasn’t lost on Holm’s students, either, especially an array of fourth- and fifth-graders that clamored for photos with the pitcher and chanted, “Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.”
“I want to be a professional golfer just like he’s a professional baseball player,” said Brayden Forte, 10. “It’s so cool for him to be here, to talk with us. He’s showing us how to (chase our dreams).”
Even as the left-hander has emerged as the ace of a talented Colorado rotation in just his second season, his deep ties to Denver, shown in his tattoos and frequently expressed during interviews, isn’t lost on the burgeoning Kyle Freeland fan club.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for Kyle to become a Colorado icon,” said Jim Kellogg, the Rockies’ vicepresident of community operations. “You see how well he’s pitching in Colorado and how well he’s performing overall — but more importantly he’s a good person.”