Saugus High School Baseball hosted its 6th annual Food Pantry donation drive on Saturday and Sunday at home plate.
And, by intent, it was not highly publicized.
Carl Grissom coaches the varsity team and seeing that some of Saugus’ games fall fairly close to Thanksgiving, he wanted to create a way that baseball could give back.
He talked with fellow coaches of other baseball teams and they all agreed that this was something that needed to happen.
“Being a baseball coach, you’re just not the coach,” said Grissom. “You’re teaching them lessons, trying to be a mentor to them. I just wanted them to know what it really was to be part of a program and try to give back to the community.”
The weekend before Thanksgiving, Saugus plays host for six games. Everyone in attendance is asked to bring “a canned good or two” to be donated to the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry.
Freshman and junior varsity players stand outside the field collecting any donations that come.
“Not everybody is as fortunate as they are and they get to see the other side of how things can go,” said Grissom.
The donations will be delivered on Wednesday. Members of Saugus baseball take shifts working in the food pantry and unloading the truck that day as well.
As of Sunday morning, Saugus has collected three large-sized bins full of donations and four frozen Turkeys.
The program chooses not to promote it further than word of mouth by the baseball families because they want to stay true to what the cause means – learning to give back.
“It’s not always about baseball, but it’s really about developing these high school boys, these young men into good humans and good men that understand that we’re part of a larger community to help each other out,” said freshman baseball coach Jeff Bennett. “It’s very much about teaching and being good humans. That’s what it’s about.”
