Detroit Tiger’s Max Scherzer Trains Kids at Martin Rd. Park for Big Brothers Big Sisters

(Big Brothers, Big Sisters Press Release, Ferndale 115 News, Aug. 14, 2012)

On August 4, 2012, Detroit Tigers, Starting Pitcher, Max Scherzer and Biking for Baseball collaborated to host a baseball clinic during the 2012 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit Annual Summer Picnic, held at Martin Road Parkfor the third consecutive year.

Biking for Baseball is a Denver-based organization committed to raising awareness and funds for youth mentoring programs, by biking to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. In each city, they partner with local Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations, providing free baseball clinics intended to share the essentials of the sport.

With four learning stations, Scherzer and Biking for Baseball provided the programs mentees (“Littles”), alongside their mentors (“Bigs”), hands-on instructions, demonstrating the fundamentals of the game. The learning activities also provided an effective platform to encourage continued relationship-building for the Bigs and Littles in attendance.

The 2012 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit Annual Picnic welcomed over 200 Bigs, Littles, Parents and Supporters as they incited the importance of enduring mentoring relationships and celebrated current Big/Little matches. It was a time of fun interactions for the attendees as they also participated in arts and crafts, sack racing, flag football, dancing and enjoyed a DJ for music entertainment !

“This has been an unbelievable summer for the youth in our Sports Buddies program. We were thrilled to have Biking for Baseball and Detroit Tigers Pitcher, Max Scherzer as a part of our annual summer picnic, providing baseball instruction and fundamentals to our Littles.” shared LaRon Evans, Sports Buddies Program Coordinator.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit

For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life.  Donations allow Big Brothers Big Sisters to carefully pair each young person with the right mentor and provide ongoing support and monitoring needed to keep the mentoring match strong so that it can yield the kind of success unique to Big Brothers Big Sisters.  The Big Brothers Big Sisters model is proven to improve mentees’ odds for succeeding in school and achieving in life.  Most children served by Big Brothers Big Sisters are in single-parent and low-income families or households where a parent is incarcerated.  As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”).  And for thirty-eight years of service locally in the metropolitan Detroit community, Big Brothers Big Sisters maintains a stellar reputation of recruiting exemplary citizens to share positive experiences with metropolitan Detroit youth.  For more information of how to sign up, call 313-309-0500 or visit our website at www.bbbsdetroit.org.