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Meet a Tampa Action Team Player
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| Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays |
Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Carlos Pena wants all high schools to do what he did when he learned that Tampa was starting an Action Team. “I jumped at the chance to join the Action Team!” says Pena. “Volunteering is one of the pleasant responsibilities of life. Some responsibilities are hard. But giving back by helping others – that’s a pleasure!”
The Tampa Action Team is now wrapping up a great first year – and Pena is preparing for the Wii tournament that Action Team Captains are organizing for a lively group of senior citizens.
Growing Up a Volunteer
Pena is no stranger to volunteering in the community. “My father stressed that volunteering is just something you do,” Pena says. “He believed it was the way a community works – and the way it develops and improves.”
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Pena’s early volunteer activities included working at a library and helping with food and clothing drives. From his experience, he believes that you develop as a person by helping others. It’s what makes volunteering such a win-win activity, Pena explains. Everyone benefits in big ways
Today he’s still focused on helping children in need in his native country. “There are children who have nothing – food, clothing, education, medicine. Things we take for granted – they don’t have.”
Making Smiles the Goal
Pena also sends baseball shirts and equipment to children in the Dominican Republic, to give them the fun of playing ball. “I’ll do whatever I can to put a smile on a child’s face,” he states.
That’s a goal Carlos Pena shares with high school students on the Tampa Action Team, who are putting smiles on faces of young and old alike. Pena also shares his inspiration for service with teens everywhere: “I’ve been so blessed by what I’ve accomplished in my life. Opportunities to give back are ways to say thank you.”
Every high school in the country is eligible to launch an Action Team beginning in September 2009. Get an Action Team Application – and hurry! The first 25 high schools to enroll in the Action Team by June 15, 2009, will get a live thank-you phone call from a Major League Action Team player.It might even be Carlos Pena!