A bit of greater than a century after Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Ga., Chipper Jones traveled to the agricultural southwest Georgia city to watch the long-lasting pioneer’s birthdate whereas additional aiding a charity that may have additionally been close to and expensive to Robinson’s coronary heart.
“Any Boys & Ladies Membership in Florida and Georgia has been the onus of my focus all through the lifetime of the Chipper Jones Household Basis,” Jones stated. “The truth that I can prolong that focus whereas being in Jackie Robinson’s hometown makes it much more particular.”
Jones served because the keynote speaker for the twelfth Jackie Robinson Boys & Ladies Membership “A Diamond Affair” fundraising occasion on Friday night time. This occasion was held on what would have been Robinson’s 106th birthday.
Robinson’s mom moved the household to Pasadena, Calif., when he was nonetheless an toddler. However Cairo has at all times celebrated its native son. The Jackie Robinson Boys & Ladies Membership gives alternatives for kids, lots of whom proceed to learn from the braveness and fortitude Robinson confirmed when the previous Dodgers star completely broke baseball’s colour barrier in 1947.
As Robinson constructed an 11-season Corridor of Fame profession that was highlighted with the 1949 Nationwide League MVP Award, he aided kids, very like those that at present profit from the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment of America. He and Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella labored as coaches and counselors within the Boy’s Work Division of the Harlem YMCA.
“Jackie was a trailblazer of epic proportion,” Jones stated. “It is exhausting to seek out something unhealthy to say concerning the man who was a hell of a ballplayer and a hell of an individual.”
Jones joined Robinson as a Corridor of Famer in 2018. He has spent his post-playing profession persevering with to present again although his basis, which has aided The Rally Basis, the Boys & Ladies Membership of America, Little League applications and the Cystic Fibrosis Basis.
“We attempt to do all we will to present children with much less alternatives than we had, the chance to go on the market and play baseball,” Jones stated. “Each likelihood I get to assist the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment, I’ll take each alternative to assist as many individuals and youngsters as I can.”
