MAJOR LEAGUERS IN ACTION
______________________________________________________

Carlos Pena: “Volunteering Is One of Life’s Pleasant Responsibilities!”

Former Cape Cod League Player and 2007 Players Choice Award Winner Looks Ahead to the New Tampa Bay Action Team

When Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Carlos Pena learned that the Players Trust and Volunteers of America Action Team wanted to expand to Tampa, “I said, ‘I’ll do it!’ ” Pena explains. “I jumped at the chance to be part of this new Action Team. Volunteering is one of the pleasant responsibilities of life. Some responsibilities are hard. But giving back by helping others – that’s a pleasure!”

Pena will join fellow Tampa Bay player Cliff Floyd in supporting Tampa-area high school students who will serve as Action Team Captains. The Captains will recruit and lead other teens in service projects in their Tampa Bay communities. Along with Tampa, Chicago and Cleveland are also establishing Action Teams this fall. Those additions increase the Action Team roster to 19 sites for the 2008-2009 school year.

What plans does Pena have for the Tampa Action Team? “We have some ideas, but I want to know what the students care about and want to do. I want to keep our focus and energies on what helps each student grow into a whole human being.” Pena believes that you develop as a person by helping others. It’s what makes volunteering such a win-win activity, he explains. Everyone benefits in big ways.

Cheering Each Other On

Pena is no stranger to working with young people. As a college student at Northeastern University in Boston, he spent two summers playing baseball on the Cape Cod League. Pena worked at a kids’ camp during the day as a summer job and played on his Cape Cod League team at night.

One of Pena’s favorite memories from his Cape Cod experience is the mutual support between the kids and the college players. “The kids’ camp was located behind the stadium where we played ball. The kids would be the first ones at our games and cheering us on. But during the day, they were our number-one focus. We did a lot of different activities—baseball was only one of them. Whatever it was, we were cheering for the kids. It was mutual – we cheered each other on,” Pena recalls.

(Check out “Working and Playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League” and the May Classroom Edition to learn more about the Cape’s historic amateur baseball league.)

Volunteering: It’s What You Do

Pena is also no stranger to getting involved in the community as a volunteer. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, he started volunteering as a young person through his church. His father was also an important influence. “My father stressed that volunteering was just something you do,” Pena says. “He believed it was the way a community works – and the way it develops and improves.”

Pena’s early volunteer activities included working at a library and helping with food and clothing drives. 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.”

Recently, Pena’s tremendous skill as a ballplayer resulted in a $20,000 grant to a charity he supports in the Dominican Republic. In April 2008, Carlos Pena received the Players Choice Award as the 2007 American League Comeback Player. (The award is selected by secret ballot, with all American League players voting.) In his honor, the Major League Baseball Players Trust presented the grant to Fundacion Lumen 2000, which serves around 3,000 families in the Province of San Francisco de Marcoris. The money is being used for basics like health, education, food, and shelter.

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.

Clearly, that’s a goal Carlos Pena will share with the enthusiastic high school volunteers who join him on the new Tampa Action Team. No doubt, he’ll also share his inspiration for service: “I’ve been so blessed by what I’ve accomplished in my life. Opportunities to give back are ways to say thank you.”