Baseball season is just around the corner. Before you trade in that old glove, think about donating it so children in the US and around the world who can’t afford equipment can take their bases in style.
The McCollum Insurance Agency, 4109 Main Street, in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, is collecting new and gently used youth baseball/softball gloves and new baseballs and softballs for Pitch In for Baseball (PIB), a nonprofit organization based in Harleysville founded by David Rhode, a businessman and avid sports coach. Some well known local folks serve on its board, among them Bill Piszek, vice president of the Copernicus Society founded by his late father, Ed Piszek, founder of Mrs. Paul’s Foods, and Bradley Korman, co-president of Korman Communities, Inc.
This past year, Pitch in for Baseball teamed with major league baseball to distribute equipment to more than 175 inner city baseball leagues in the US. PIB has sent gear to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, a youth organization in Slovenia, and, thanks to a group of US soldiers in Iraq, to a new baseball team in Bagdad. In Philly, the group was able to help the Nelson Playground to increase the number of participants in its ball programs from 60 to 300 because of the donated equipment.
McCollum came across PIB while looking for an organization that needed sports equipment. “From day one when I started my business, I wanted to do something to help out the community,” he says. “There are drives for food and for clothing, and I wanted to try something different. And there they were on Google.”
Ideally, McCollum says, he’d love the equipment he collects to go to kids in Philly. “I really wanted to help out locally,” he says. And he was happy to see that the city’s parks department is a regular recipient of PIB’s largesse.
McCollum will be collecting baseball gear through March 15 at his Manayunk office. You can contact him at b.mccollum@verizon.net or 215-508-9000.
