DETROIT — More than 30 CSX employees and 10 City Year Corps members will join 60 local community members and officials tomorrow to restore and revitalize the baseball facilities at the St. Hedwig Playfield.
Together, the volunteers, including members of the Southwest Detroit Business Association (SDBA) will invest about 800 hours of service in rebuilding the field use by the Detroit Bees, a baseball program serving children in Southwest Detroit.
Plans for the day include rebuilding the infield, repairing the fence surrounding the field and covering the association’s building with athletic murals.
Kathleen H. Wendler, President of the Southwest Detroit Business Association, welcomed the project. “The Southwest Detroit Business Association promotes partnerships between Business and the Community to provide a quality experience for the residents and patrons of Southwest Detroit. The work of CSX, City Year, and The Skillman Foundation on the renovation of St. Hedwig’s Field, is a perfect example of that relationship, and the influence it has on the lives of people in the community. Their work is ensuring that our baseball fields are second to none, allowing the children of the community to develop and flourish into healthy adults.”
The CSX/City Year project expands CSX’s corporate citizenship outreach programs in communities where its trains operate and where it serves customers and the local economy. CSX is a national sponsor of City Year, and this event is the fifth in a series of seven CSX-sponsored service days to be held with City Year in 2008. In addition to the event in Detroit, CSX employees have participated in service days in Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Nashville and will do later service days in Tampa and Winter Haven, Florida, and Baltimore.
“CSX is pleased to support City Year and join with our neighbors in Southwest Detroit to enhance the community in which we all work, live and play,” said Tom Drake, Regional Vice President of Public Affairs. Our employees live and work here and we are excited about the opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors in an effort to restore this important part of the Southwest Detroit community.”
“This project is particularly meaningful because CSX and City Year both have roots here. In addition to our long history of serving the local economy, City Year — in conjunction with city schools and other service partners — has been a positive force in the community since 1999,” Drake said.
— PRNewswire
