Final Update – we were able to get folks to redeem items and donate points for a total of 43 items, including some red Nationals caps the staff of the Nationals decided to add. Many thanks to all who contributed. This is a picture of Section222 with all the goodies. Apparently, we were the talk of the Nats office staff about this.
This effort started with comments a few days ago based on an exchange between Section222, AllStars and me – asking the TalkNats community to pool our leftover points together to get a small gift for Ghost as a thank you for all the work he puts into this site. Ghost, being Ghost, graciously demurred any gift and asked the RCR points earmarked for him be used for the Youth Baseball Academy.
Warning Track Power quickly joined in and said the following:
As some of you know I’m a volunteer mentor and coach at the Academy. Going there is the highlight(s) of my week.
After PLAY practices (which will resume mid-January) the coaches and Scholar-Athletes give shout-outs, commenting on respect, hustle, effort, etc. In effect, all things non-baseball/softball performance related. We often give out donated swag as well, to include t-shirts, hats, and sometimes gloves and cleats.
I’m confident that at the after-school programing, to include academic instruction/tutoring, shouts-outs and swag are given out there as well.
Even more than the gifted item, the young girls and boys relish the praise and recognition (as we all do).
One shout-out in particular I remember occurred when a boy said that he was new and didn’t know anyone. Before practice started another boy came up to him, introduced himself, shook his hand, and asked if he wanted to warm up. The boy giving the shout-out said how this helped him tremendously.
All the coaches let out an involuntarily astonished sound. These are some incredibly mature youngsters.
Here are some possible items we can get them.
Here is an inventory of what has been donated so far – either by folks redeeming items and sending us the reward certificates or by sending us their unused points. The plan is for Section222 to go to Nats Park Monday evening to pick up all the items and then he and Warning Track Power will coordinate getting them over to the Nationals Youth Academy once it re-opens after the holiday.
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8 (pink) probrite baseballs
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2 (blue) probrite baseballs
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2 Screech travel pillows
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5 Championship Boxes with pins and gold lanyards
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2 phone chargers (these kids all have cell phones, right?)
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1 Nats tin with a Curly W flag
- 1 Anthony Rendon Bobblehead
- 1 World Series Pin
- 1 Ornament
- 1 Large Gold Jersey
- 1 Small Gold Jersey
And we have another 695 points we can use for items.
If you want to contribute there are three ways to do that. All of them are simple:
Send an email to [email protected] – a burner email address that will be valid thru the pickup date of Monday, December 13.
- You can just select items and forward the email with the redemption certificate to that address.
- You can transfer points – just send an email to ask for an account number to do the transfer.
- Since there are quantity limits on what an account can order, we may need to send you points and ask you to redeem.
Thanks in advance for your support of this worthwhile effort!
We will be refreshing this page with updates as we redeem items. So please check back often!
