The windfall comes from Gatorade’s All-Star Workout Day, a charity home-run derby, held one day prior to the actual All-Star game on Tuesday, July 15.
The gate from the Gatorade-sponsored, Yankee Stadium event, on Monday, July 14, will be donated, and a large crowd is expected with this year being the last opportunity for fans to enjoy such a spectacle at the legendary House That Ruth Built.
Major League Baseball made a commitment to several Bronx charities, including a few in the blocks surrounding Yankee Stadium.
Four Bronx charities including Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, the Grand Concourse branch of the New York Public Library, Bronx Lebanon Medical Center, and Montefiore Medical Center will benefit from part of the money raised.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg commented how the money will benefit the immediate area.
“[The money raised] is going to make a big difference in the Bronx here,” Bloomberg said. “The Bronx has undergone an amazing renovation – a coming out of the ashes.”
The captain of the Yankees, Derek Jeter, also felt the excitement the event is generating.
“The money that the Yankees and Major League Baseball are donating to the city of the Bronx – I think it’s fitting,” he said. “The Bronx has really improved throughout the years, even since I first came up. I think with the addition of the new stadium, they are really building up the area around it.”
Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club will use the money raised to help in the construction of a youth center in the West Bronx, near Yankee Stadium, that will serve 1,500 youngsters.
Karel Amaranth, executive director of he Butler Child Advocacy Center at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, will use the money to fund their support services for sexually and physically abused children.
Yankees president Randy Levine said this event and others highlight the team’s commitment to the local area.
“The New York Yankees have been, and are committed to being, an active participant in the improvement of our community,” Levine stated. “We really work hard at it.”
