Lugnuts and Disability Rights Michigan to host Accessible Day Sunday

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LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts and Disability Rights Michigan (DRM) have partnered to host an Accessible Day at Jackson® Field™ on Sunday, September 11th. This partnership hopes to raise awareness about the need for full inclusion, so individuals with disabilities feel empowered within the community.

Ballpark gates open at 12 noon, with first pitch at 1:05 p.m. between the Lugnuts and the visiting Dayton Dragons. This is the final scheduled game in the Lugnuts’ season.

Accessible Day at the ballpark will include ASL interpreters, menus in braille, sensory kits, quiet room, “get your wiggles out” station and a host of other accommodations. Fans can learn about advocacy organizations in the area and what assistive technology is available to them.

“Disability Rights Michigan would like to thank the Lansing Lugnuts for celebrating the beauty of inclusion,” said Executive Director Michelle Roberts. “To have an experience where everyone feels welcomed and included brings together a community. Baseball is for everyone, and we are excited to be part of this day.”

“We’re proud to partner with Disability Rights Michigan, whose values we share,” said Lansing Lugnuts general manager Tyler Parsons. “This is about celebrating inclusivity, extending not only through all Lugnuts fans but also through our staff. This will be an outstanding afternoon to connect, empower and root together at the ballpark.”

Disability Rights Michigan and Michigan Disability Rights Coalition will be present on the concourse providing information and awareness around the services they offer. Autism Alliance of Michigan will be providing sensory kits and the Bureau of Elections will showcase the Voter Assist Terminals available in the upcoming November election.

About Disability Rights Michigan
Disability Rights Michigan (DRM) is the independent, private, nonprofit organization designated by the governor of the State of Michigan to advocate and protect the legal rights of people with disabilities in Michigan. www.drmich.org.

About the Lansing LugnutsThe High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, the Lansing Lugnuts have won over 1,800 games and two league championships, hosted four All-Star Games, and produced 171 Major Leaguers in 26 seasons. Over 8,000,000 fans have attended Lugnuts games, including over 250,000 this season. For more information, call (517) 485-4500.

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Lugnuts to honor Bud Fowler, Page Fence Giants on June 24

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LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts will honor incoming 2022 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Bud Fowler with a bobblehead giveaway on a special Page Fence Giants Night on June 24 at Jackson® Field™, the Lugnuts announced today.

The tribute night, honoring Fowler and the dominant trailblazing 19th-century team he co-founded, is part of Minor League Baseball’s “The Nine,” a Black-community focused initiative that will celebrate the legacies of Black baseball pioneers throughout the upcoming season. The Lugnuts will wear the Page Fence Giants’ black and maroon uniforms, with the first 1,000 fans through the gates receiving a special Bud Fowler commemorative bobblehead, presented by Physicians Health Plan. LAFCU Fireworks will follow the game.

“Our connection with Bud Fowler and the Page Fence Giants began last year, when we learned their story as they were inducted into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame,” said Lansing Lugnuts owner Tom Dickson. “Theirs is an important story to retell: a Black professional baseball team based out of Michigan that won an overwhelming number of the games they played. We are proud to continue to tell their story and join The Nine during the same summer that Bud Fowler rightfully takes his place in Cooperstown.”

“Celebrating the rich history of baseball in Michigan, especially when we honor players like Bud Fowler and the rest of the Page Fence Giants, is absolutely incredible. Lansing is proud to be the home of the Lugnuts, and even prouder to join with them for this great night of baseball. I look forward to seeing the Page Fence Giants’ uniforms in action at Jackson Field this season and saluting the memory of Bud Fowler,” stated Lansing Mayor Andy Schor.

Bud Fowler, born John W. Jackson, Jr., in 1858, was the first professional Black baseball player. He began his baseball career as a fine pitcher and catcher before turning to the infield after developing arm troubles. Wrote the Sporting Life, “With his splendid abilities he would long ago have been on some good club had his color been white instead of black. Those who know say there is no better second baseman in the country.” By the time he was done, Fowler had logged over 2,000 at-bats during a career lasting two decades. His final team in organized baseball was the 1895 Lansing Senators, with whom he batted .331 in 31 games.

In August of 1894, Fowler broke his leg in a game. He spent his rehabilitation time joining with young slugger Grant “Home Run” Johnson and a trio of white businessmen in Adrian to found the Page Fence Giants in September 1894. Sponsored by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company, the Giants traveled around the Midwest and Canada in their own private railroad car, winning over 100 games each year from 1895 through 1898. In their most famous moment, they convincingly defeated the Cuban X-Giants in 1896 in a series that was promoted as determining the best Black baseball team of the era.

The Lugnuts will open 2022 on Wednesday, April 6, playing the Michigan State Spartans in the Crosstown Showdown, before welcoming the Lake County Captains to Jackson® Field™ on Friday, April 8, raising the curtain on the 132-game High-A season.

For more information on “The Nine,” visit milb.com. For the latest information about the Lansing Lugnuts, visit lansinglugnuts.com or call (517) 485-4500.

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FIFTH THIRD BANK STEPS UP TO THE PLATE WITH BIGGER DONATIONS ON “STAND UP TO CANCER NIGHT”

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LANSING, Mich. – Fifth Third Bank Western Michigan and the Lansing Lugnuts are teaming up to help fight cancer when the Bank hosts a special Stand Up To Cancer Night at Cooley Law School Stadium on Saturday, August 12. Fifth Third will offer fun, interactive fan activities during the game as part of the bank’s ongoing commitment to raise awareness and contributions to support cancer research.

Among the in-game promotions planned include:

  • A $5,300 donation to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) that the bank will make for every strikeout that the home team accomplishes during the game. This is an increase from the $530 donation per strikeout last year.
  • Fifth Third will also donate $5.30 to SU2C for every eligible public use of the hashtag #howifight on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, up to $500,000 during the promotion period.*
  • A special mid-game stretch is planned when fans can show their support for loved ones who have fought or are fighting cancer by holding up, in unison, special customized SU2C game placards.

Since teaming up with SU2C in 2013, Fifth Third has contributed more than $7.2 million in donations to help fund innovative cancer research and support SU2C’s mission to bring new cancer treatments to patients quickly and save lives now. SU2C has helped receive two drug approvals in the last seven years, a process that can typically take between 12-15 years for just one drug.

“Stand Up To Cancer’s teams of researchers and scientists are making significant breakthroughs in cancer research,” said Tom Ruis, Vice President, Fifth Third Bank. “With the help of the Lugnuts fans, and Fifth Third customers, we hope to get one step closer to ‘striking out’ this disease once and for all.”

Tickets can be purchased at the Lugnuts website, lansinglugnuts.com. On top of the other donations, Fifth Third will also give $1 to SU2C for each person who attends the game.

Stand Up To Cancer, a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is a breakthrough initiative that raises funds to accelerate innovative cancer research, enabling scientific collaboration in order to get new therapies to patients quickly. Fifth Third supports this collaborative approach and is committed to finding different ways to improve people’s lives and better our communities. As such, Fifth Third began working with SU2C in 2013 when the Bank introduced its Fifth Third SU2C debit and credit cards, which raise funds to support SU2C research through every qualifying purchase made using those cards. Fifth Third Bank is the only card issuer to offer the SU2C payment cards. Visit 53.com/su2ccards for full details.

*$5.30 donation to SU2C for every eligible public post with the hashtag #howifight on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, from 7/1/17-12/31/17, up to $500,000. Only one hashtag use per username, per Monitored Social Media Site, per day will be counted.

About the Lansing Lugnuts
The Lansing Lugnuts, Class-A Affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, are in their 22nd season in Michigan’s Capital City. The Lugnuts make their home at beautiful Cooley Law School Stadium, built in 1996 with an award-winning renovation in 2015/16, and continue to be a key component in revitalizing Lansing’s downtown while providing fun, affordable, family entertainment to fans in Mid Michigan and beyond. Find them online: www.lansinglugnuts.com.

About Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. As of June 30, 2017, the Company had $141 billion in assets and operated 1,157 full-service Banking Centers and 2,461 ATMs in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending, and Wealth & AssetManagement. As of June 30, 2017, Fifth Third also had a 17.7 percent interest in Vantiv Holding, LLC. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of June 30, 2017, had $330 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $34 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed atwww.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender.

About Stand Up To Cancer
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) raises funds to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. SU2C, a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established in 2008 by film and media leaders who utilize the industry’s resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, and to increase awareness about cancer prevention as well as progress being made in the fight against the disease. As SU2C’s scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and a Scientific Advisory Committee led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, conduct rigorous, competitive review processes to identify the best research proposals to recommend for funding, oversee grants administration, and provide expert review of research progress.

Current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, Ellen Ziffren, and Kathleen Lobb. The late Laura Ziskin and the late Noreen Fraser are also co-founders. Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, has served as SU2C’s president and CEO since 2011.

For more information on Stand Up To Cancer, visit www.StandUpToCancer.org.

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