I was in the Progressive Field Team Shop the other day to buy a hooded sweatshirt for my future sister-in-law, who I will refer to only as Rebecca D.  Actually, that’s too identifiable, so I’ll call her R. Drew instead.  Anyway, she had been hounding me forever to get her an Indians hoodie (yeah, I called it that) and her birthday was approaching so I thought I might as well.  I scrounged up enough Indians Fun Money (Fun Money is like Micky Mouse money…it’s not real, but you can still buy stuff legally with it) and made the purchase.

The cashier gave my total as $34.88.  She then asked if I would like to “Round Up for Charity.” You can see my Round Up for Charity blog entry here.  Of course I said yes, and the remaining 12 cents was given to Cleveland Indians Charities (CIC).  Twelve cents doesn’t seem like much, but if everyone “Rounds Up” that accumulates to a pretty good number for charity.  Round Up, along with numerous other fundraisers throughout the year allow CIC to make some amazing financial contributions.

The past few days, CIC has been making headlines by donating those funds back to the Cleveland community.  On March 31st, a Rally for Excellence was held at East Tech High School and was open to any and all supporters/students/teachers/parents of Cleveland Metropolitan School District.  At the rally, Cleveland Indians Charities presented CMSD a check for $167,000 which will be used to continue their baseball and softball programs (which would have been eliminated along with their other Spring sports programs). 

The Indians and CIC continued their support of the baseball and softball programs by attending the Senate League’s season opener on April 2.  The ceremonial first pitch(es) was thrown out by Cleveland Indians President, Mark Shapiro and CMSD Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon.  This marks the 15th season of partnership between the Athletic Department of CMSD and Cleveland Indians Charities.   In those 15 years, CIC has donated over $2.4 million dollars to help operate baseball and softball programs throughout the Cleveland school system.

CIC was not done yet!  On April 4, Cleveland Indians Charities President and Indians Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Bob DiBiasio along with Indians Chairman and CEO Paul Dolan made their way to the Boys and Girls Club’s Broadway Club to make the largest charitable donation in CIC history.  They presented a check in the amount of ONE MILLION DOLLARS to Ron Soeder, President of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland to support their “Save Our Kids” campaign.

The “Save Our Kids” initiative aims to raise $16-20 million dollars over the next five  years in an effort to maximize the reach of existing Greater Cleveland clubs, add new clubs throughout the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Breakthrough Charter Schools, and build a sustainable endowment to support the children of Cleveland. 

Check out the video below for a summary of the donation and the partnership of the Cleveland Indians and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland:

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20382819&topic_id=&c_id=cle&tcid=vpp_copy_20382819&v=3