Welcome back IronBirds fans! We hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful, sunny day. Today we are going to take a look at how the IronBirds are getting involved in the local community and even hosting their first ever Art Contest.
Two years ago, we formed the group ROCS which stands for Ripken Outreach and Community Service. As an organization we wanted to create a better way to give back to the local communities that have given us so much. Every month we have at least one service project that is anything from Polar Bear Plunge to canned food drives. This past Monday we participated in the third annual Aberdeen High School Clean Up. This is a unique opportunity where we work with the students from Aberdeen High School to help beautify their campus. Everyone pitches in for this event. The staff from Ripken splits into two shifts to cover the full day and all of the students spend their gym class cleaning up. Even the principal was out pushing the lawn mower. Over the past three years we have done everything from trimming bushes to mulching. This year, the main focus was on planting trees. Aberdeen High School lost many trees during the last hurricane and wanted to replace them this year. Overall, we planted 16 trees on Monday along with weeding, mulching, and cleaning up the campus.
This time of year Ferrous is also very busy. Ferrous and Ripcord have been all over during the past week. Each year, we work with many local youth league baseballs to help bring Ferrous and Ripcord out to their Opening Days. This past weekend we were able to partipcate in Opening Days with Lake Shore Baseball, Churchville Rec, Fallston Baseball, and Rising Sun Little League. On Wednesday, Ferrous even went and spent a day with Harford Day School. Ferrous and Ripcord are going to continue to be busy over the next few weeks as they stop in to visit other Opening Days.
As part of our community efforts, we wanted our fans to really become more involved with the IronBirds. We though the perfect way would be to have a local elementary student design a cover to one of our First Pitch Programs. We had 25 Harford County Elementary Students submit their drawings. One lucky winner will be chosen to have his or her drawing on the cover of our June 23rd and 24th edition of the First Pitch Program. We had so many great entries that we need your help deciding. We have posted all of the entries on Facebook and we need you to “like” your favorite. Here is the link to the album. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152380136269686.1073741833.14392384685&type=1 You have until May 2nd at 5 pm to cast your vote!
Make sure to keep sending your questions to blog@aberdeenironbirds.com. Check back on Monday for the next edition of Mailbox Monday!
Until then…Go IronBirds!
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