Coop Scoop Blog
Thank you for helping us raise $2,700 to launch a youth baseball league in Arbor Hill!
On August 3rd, Honest Weight Food Co-op presented a check totalling $2,700 to the Arbor Hill Development Corporation in support of their efforts to launch a baseball and softball league serving the youth of Arbor Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods. The donation is the result of a multi-faceted fundraising drive at Honest Weight over the last two weeks in June, which included a pay-what-you-can barbecue during the store’s 5-year anniversary celebration, a shopper-supported register drive, and a matched donation by the Co-op.
The Arbor Hill Development Corporation recognized the need for youth programs to empower, enrich, and occupy school-aged kids during summer break, after school, and on weekends. They also noted the lack of school or community sponsored baseball and softball in the area they serve, which includes Sheridan Hollow, North Albany, West Hill and West End. This is despite a restoration of the baseball and softball fields at the Field of Dreams in Arbor Hill Park by the City of Albany in the Spring of 2017. The fields are currently used primarily by adults.
The AHDC plans to begin programming throughout the school year with a series of six-week clinics that will include mentoring, skills-building, and educational enrichment. The young participants will be introduced to the mechanics and values of baseball in preparation for the launch of an organized league in summer 2019.
Honest Weight, located in Albany’s West End, operates on a triple bottom line, focusing on people and the planet before monetary profit. They are committed to donating 5% of their annual net income to local non-profit organizations and provide in-kind and cash donations to about 150 organizations every year.
“I reached out to Honest Weight in June because I knew they do a lot of community work. Never did I imagine the effort they managed to put forth in such a short amount of time and the impact it had!,“ Arlene Way, Executive Director of the AHDC, told us. “Thank you to the Honest Weight community for its can-do spirit and support of this initiative. We’re going to make some children very happy.”
Rick Mausert, Honest Weight’s Chief Cooperative Officer, offered, “We are thrilled at the opportunity to support the AHDC’s youth baseball and softball initiative in our neighborhood! Our commitment to local goes beyond farmers and suppliers—helping out our community is a huge part of our greater mission.”
Funds will help cover snacks, uniforms, sneakers, and equipment to children aged 13 and under, who may participate in the clinic free of charge. The AHDC is also committed to offering field trips to see the Tri-City ValleyCats, who have offered donated tickets for program participants, and, resources permitting, to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and to see a Yankees game in NYC.