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By Cal Ripken Jr.
National Baseball Hall of Famer and cofounder of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation
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Twenty-seven years ago, we lost Dad, Cal Ripken, Sr., to lung cancer. Two years later, we decided to honor his memory by starting a nonprofit organization in his name to help kids who don’t have all the advantages we did growing up.
When we began, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation had the simple goal of helping some kids in our hometown of Aberdeen, Maryland. We never could have expected the journey that it would take us on.
I may be well known for playing a record 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games, but the streak the foundation continues on has been more important.
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Baseball is a game of fundamentals. You build success through repetition, consistency, and accountability. Dad used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect,” and we look at helping kids the same way. It’s about committing to a plan.
Today we are blown away by the fact that we have impacted over 14 million young people across the country. We could not have done it without hundreds of youth partner organizations who work with the kids each day and the generous donors who have supported our growth. We get to provide mentoring programs, build turf fields, and install STEM Centers, all with a simple mission: to offer opportunities for kids who need them most.
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For much of my life, people have known me as a ballplayer. I loved playing baseball and got to spend my entire career, 21 seasons, with my hometown Baltimore Orioles. I also had wonderful, caring parents who guided me and my siblings.
Looking back, it is clear that we were incredibly fortunate. Many kids don’t have what we had: strong parents, safe places to play, and people to help guide us in the right direction. Maybe that’s where the idea of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation first started.
As baseball put me in the spotlight, it was my mom who suggested I use that attention for something bigger than myself. Early on I worked with many wonderful organizations, it was later that we decided to narrow our focus to make a greater impact.
Those experiences reinforced that your impact is strongest when it is intentional and when great partners are involved, all working together to help others. You can do good things on your own, but you can achieve great things with the right team. That’s the model we used when we created the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.
Today, the foundation impacts more than 1.6 million underserved young people each year across the country. That growth came slowly and helped fill the gaps that we saw when it came to helping kids.
We started with our national Youth Mentoring Initiatives in the early years to connect kids with mentors, including law enforcement officers. Our signature program, Badges for Baseball, elevated us as a national nonprofit. We have since added a girls program called I’M GREAT. These programs help young people build trust and self-esteem.
In 2009, we launched our Youth Development Park initiative after noticing a lack of clean and safe green spaces, because every child deserves a place to play. These are places where kids can go after school; families connect, and communities take ownership. Today, we have opened 128 mostly multi-purpose fields, giving more than 743,000 kids access across 27 states and Washington, D.C.
As the world changed, we did too. In 2015, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) became a topic of discussion with many of our partners. It was about the future workforce and exposing kids to all that STEM offered. When I was young, I was a big fan of math, so this really resonated for me. Through our STEM Center Initiative, which includes a team of teachers and strong corporate partners, we have installed over 910 STEM Centers in 31 states and D.C., bringing hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math education to more than 388,000 kids.
None of this happens alone. We have been fortunate to work alongside committed local, regional and national partners. Their support reflects a shared belief that investing in young people and creating opportunities for them early in life will help with the needs of tomorrow.
Everything we have accomplished is the result of staff, board leadership, and charitable partners who share a common purpose. Baseball gave me so much. In addition to being part of special teams, it gave me a platform, and a way to connect with people beyond the game. Through the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, we have tried to use that platform to create opportunities for kids and we are grateful to those who have joined us along the way.
Cal Ripken Jr. is a National Baseball Hall of Famer and co-founder of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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