Education to be first area of focus: Worcester Public Library and Worcester Public Schools to be first beneficiaries– WPL Foundation to receive $25,000 donation; Library to receive books to begin a “Baseball Book Nook”
WORCESTER, MA – As promised in the Community Benefits Agreement with the City of Worcester and the Worcester Community Labor Coalition, the Worcester Red Sox today announced the creation of the “WooSox Foundation” to benefit the people and the charities of the city, the region, and the Commonwealth.
The foundation’s first area of focus will be education, and two of the first beneficiaries will be the Worcester Public Library Foundation and the Worcester Public Schools.
The foundation will donate $25,000 to the library, and will also donate books from the personal libraries of the club’s Principal Owner & Chairman, Red Sox Hall of Famer Larry Lucchino, as well as Vice-Chairman and Worcester native Mike Tamburro, and club President Dr. Charles Steinberg. Each has amassed a collection in their more than 40 years in baseball. The books will begin a “Baseball Book Nook” at the library.
Worcester Public Schools middle schoolers will be eligible to become “WooSox Scholars,” another club commitment in the CBA. The program will provide college scholarships of $10,000 each to four academically talented students. The first recipients will be the Class of 2021, selected in this coming school year and announced at Polar Park in the spring of 2021.
The WooSox Foundation will also create and operate a variety of programs to benefit students at each grade level, from WooSox Mentors for elementary school students to Dream Careers presentations for high school students. The foundation will also present small stipends to teachers in a new “MVT” program for Worcester’s “Most Valuable Teachers.”
In addition, the WooSox will host “Worcester School Days” each year for at least the first five years, when every Worcester student from Kindergarten through 12th grade-more than 24,000 children each year-receive a ticket to a ballgame at Polar Park.
The foundation will also present programs that help students learn the international social significance of such baseball stars as Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, and the Red Sox’ own Luis Tiant, Pedro Martinez, and David Ortiz.
“We are eager to fulfill the obligations that we offered in the Community Benefits Agreement,” Lucchino said. “Establishing the WooSox Foundation and announcing that the Worcester Public Library and the Worcester Public Schools will be immediate beneficiaries begin that process and help us demonstrate our intense desire to be more than a ballclub. We commit to being active participants in this community and in its charitable life.”
Lucchino also established philanthropic foundations with the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, and Boston Red Sox, and expanded the depth and breadth of the PawSox Foundation.
“Our public library and our schools are vitally important in fostering the education and academic development of our youth,” said Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. “We thank the Worcester Red Sox and the generosity of the WooSox Foundation in supporting both our students and all those in the community that utilize our library.”
“Worcester’s biggest asset is its young people, and nothing is more important than educating our children,” said Harvard Professor and Worcester native Paul Reville, a former Massachusetts Secretary of Education and an advisor to the WooSox. “These Red Sox gifts to our students and our library not only strengthen education in this community, but signal that in Worcester, learning is the top priority.”
More information can be found on the newly-formed website WooSoxFoundation.org.