Emerald PONY Baseball league in El Cajon, California recently hosted its third annual Christmas Baseball Tournament, which, in addition to a great weekend of baseball, served as an opportunity for the league to give back to the community through a toy drive.
The tournament was put together three years ago by Al Westermeyer, Mingo Villa and Mark Young, who all decided they wanted to give back to the community, and they chose Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego as the beneficiary.
“This is my favorite tournament of the entire year," said Villa, who serves as a League Coordinator. "I don’t know how to put it into words. This is something that brings the community together and helps revitalize that this league, out of all the leagues in San Diego, is giving back. We’re trying to make not just us better, but the whole city better.”
According to Villa, 10 teams participated and have raised a couple hundred toys already prior to this weekend's league signups, when Villa expects even more toys to be raised.
“It seems like on day one all the coaches bring toys and the players bring toys, but by the second day, now we have family and friends of families who weren’t asked to bring toys realize what type of event it is, and they start giving toys too," said Villa. "I think it’s awesome, because we only ask that the players and coaches participate, but what ends up happening is everybody hears that there’s a toy drive and we keep getting more than expected."
Congratulations goes out to the San Diego Chain for winning the Bronco age division, as well as the Lakeside Outlaws for winning the title in the Pony division. To learn how to get involved with the Emerald PONY Baseball and its annual toy drive, click here.