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By EMILY BATTLE
The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation has been talking with Fredericksburg leaders about establishing a partnership with the city unlike any relationship the foundation has had with a locality in its five-year history.
The group uses baseball and softball to teach lessons about sportsmanship, character and decision-making to young people. It seeks to provide disadvantaged youth with opportunities they would never have otherwise.
Cal Ripken Jr. and his brother, Bill Ripken, formed the foundation in honor of their father, Cal Ripken Sr., who was a player, coach and manager within the Baltimore Orioles organization for 37 years. Ripken Sr. died in 1999.
Ripken Jr.'s sights were turned on Fredericksburg after last spring's College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Omaha native and investing legend Warren Buffett, an avid baseball fan, knew Ripken Jr. was in town for the games, and invited him to dinner.
As they dined, the pair talked about the Ripken foundation's work with young people, and Ripken returned to Baltimore asking his staff how his organization could partner with the Buffett family on a youth-serving venture.
Ripken's publicist happened to know the sister of Fredericksburg attorney Charles Payne, who does pro-bono work for Doris Buffett, a local philanthropist who is Warren Buffett's sister.
Payne said Ripken's publicist called him one day and asked if he'd be interested in helping to set up a partnership between Fredericksburg and the Ripken foundation.
"I said, 'Are you kidding?'" Payne said yesterday. "This is a great gift, I think, having these guys here."
He and City Councilwoman Debby Girvan put together a meeting of local business and education leaders yesterday to hear a presentation by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation about what it is proposing to do in Fredericksburg.
Chuck Brady, the group's deputy executive director, said the foundation is looking for a "green light" from the community, in the form of willing partner organizations and donors, and is prepared to contribute $150,000 to jump-start a multifaceted program in the city .
That program has two main parts.
The first part--which could start early in 2007 if some organizational work can get done soon enough--would use the youth-serving organizations that already exist here to distribute grants for baseball and softball equipment, put on clinics for the two sports and send children to the foundation's state-of-the-art facility in Aberdeen, Md., for a one-week camp, among other things.
Brady said he thinks this part of the program can be sustained at a cost of around $250,000 a year. He said the foundation would help the community to raise the additional $100,000 needed for the first year. After that, he said the group will be looking for long-term funding partners to pay for various components of the program.
Brady said he is already talking with some potential funding partners in the city. Payne said Doris Buffett has agreed to be one of those partners.
In addition to money, the foundation will also look for organizations to partner with. Those groups will get the grants to buy equipment and put on clinics, and they'll work with the foundation to identify children who would be well-served by the foundation's summer baseball camp.
To keep the fundraising going and to give the foundation a continuous presence in Fredericksburg, Brady said the group plans to hire a staff member to be based in and dedicated to the city's programs.
The second part of the program calls for upgrading the city's baseball facilities into high-quality fields with a drainage system, lights, bleachers, batting cages, concessions stands, restrooms and covered dugouts.
That part will take a little more planning and a lot of fundraising.
For one thing, the city baseball fields aren't likely to be at their current location on Fall Hill Avenue forever. The city's master road plan calls for Mahone Drive to be extended across town from where it currently branches off from State Route 3. The extension would go right through the fields.
City leaders have not yet identified an alternative location for the fields. That was part of the discussion that a group formed by the Parks and Recreation Committee to work with the foundation had yesterday.
Brady estimated that building two high-quality fields, plus amenities like concessions stands, lights and batting cages, would cost around $750,000.
The city's Parks and Recreation Commission is drafting an agreement that would set up an official working relationship between the city and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. They'll consider that agreement at their Dec. 14 meeting.
Girvan said the partnership would likely bring Ripken Jr. himself to the city for clinics and other events. Recreation commission members said it would be good for fundraising if the city's partnership with the foundation started up early next year, since Ripken Jr. is expected to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
To reach EMILY BATTLE:
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
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The Ripken program These are the components of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation's "Play Ball" program, proposed for Fredericksburg. All of these things would be funded by a combination of foundation grants and community fundraising: Baseball and softball equipment grants of $10,000 apiece to community youth-serving organizations that partner with the foundation. At least two one-day clinics each year taught in Fredericksburg by staff from the foundation's facility in Aberdeen, Md. "Quickball"--a fast-paced, indoor version of baseball--kits distributed to youth organizations and schools. "Healthy Choices, Healthy Children" educational program materials for participating organizations. Establishing a Fredericksburg baseball festival to draw young players from around the state and country. Sending dozens of Fredericksburg youth each summer to the foundation's youth-sized version of Camden Yards in Aberdeen, Md., for an all-expense-paid week at the foundation's baseball camp. Foundation and community fundraising for upgraded baseball facilities in the city. |
