Tampa Bay Rays Spotlight

Mission

The Tampa Bay Rays encourage engagement within the community through baseball. The players are joined by the owners, sponsors, fans, and employees to help energize and excite the community. The team continues to focus on education, youth development, wellness, and social responsibility.

Community Programs:

Big Brothers Big Sisters Employee Mentors: Employees at the Tampa Bay Rays volunteer to mentor students from Campbell Park Elementary School as a big brother or big sister. The mentoring occurs weekly. The students / littles are able to be brought to games with their big brother or sister during the season.

Dominican Republic Back-To-School Event: School supplies, including backpacks, uniforms, hygiene products, and more were delivered personally from the Tampa Bay Rays to Escuela Basica Patria Mirabal in the Dominican Republic. Each student received a lunch and a backpack full of supplies. Teachers were also supplied with items to help them throughout the year.

Employee Community Outreach Team: 38,500 volunteer hours have been logged from employees giving back to the community. Service projects continuously change and are decided by the employees. This program that started in 2008 continues to grow and help the community.

Habitat for Humanity: Ray employees have provided over 1,000 hours of volunteering to build homes in the Tampa Bay area. They have finished two homes already.

KaBoom!: Program that emphasizes bringing active and daily play to kids across the country, specifically focusing on those growing up in poverty. The Rays help promote this program and have completed several projects with KaBoom! that help kids across the community.

Meals on Wheels: The Rays employees deliver meals to seniors once a week. Not only do they bring a meal, but they also sit and talk with the seniors.

MLB Initiatives: The MLB Initiative includes many days of programs to raise awareness for many causes. These programs include the following:

Breaking Barriers
Childhood Cancer Awareness Day
Commissioner’s Community Initiative
Father’s Day
Mother’s Day
Roberto Clemente Day
UMPS CARE

Ronald McDonald House: Employees buy, prepare, cook, and serve meals at the Ronald McDonald House. They then serve these meals to families and patients of John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

Foundation Programs:

Home Run Club: A donated suite from James and Ryane Shields in 2010 for foster kids turned into long term. When foster kids aren’t using the suite, it is used for special adoption events. Many adoptions have occurred from the events hosted by the Rays.

Rays Jersey Program: This program was started in 2014 and since then, they have helped more than 70,000 players and coaches with equipment needs. Covering more than 80 different leagues in counties across the state, they have saved the community over $1 million.

Reading with the Rays: Founded in 2006, this program helps kids participate in fun and interactive summer reading. More than 300,000 kids have participated in this program, reading throughout the summer, and gaining prizes for their accomplishments. One prize includes tickets to a Rays game.

South St. Petersburg Neighborhood Initiative: In response to the devasting shooting of Paris Whitehead in 2009, this program was created to focus on youth development and education. Some organizations include field days, mentoring, field renovations, Berg Baseball, and much more.

Team Smile: Originally partnered in 2018, this advocacy group works to partner dental professionals to provide free dental care to kids. This program has helped more than 400 underprivileged children, giving them everything they need to take care of their teeth.