Fishers Falcons Youth Travel Baseball Team Raises Money For Ronald McDonald House

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Todd Zimmerman, founder of the Fishers Falcons Youth Travel Baseball Team, says his team not only does great work on the baseball fields, but they also help the community.

“We (the coaches and parents) are extraordinarily excited about the team each year,” Zimmerman says. “Youth sports is a passion for most of us, and aside from raising kids that grow up with a love for baseball, we hope to be able to instill values of community, good sportsmanship and passion into our children.”

Zimmerman stressed that “time is spent at practices and games discussing with the kids about how the names on the front and back of their jerseys represent for whom we are playing. The name on the front is your community, and the name on the back is your family, and you have to represent them both proudly and in a way they would be proud of.”

That is also reflected in the Fishers Falcons Team’s colors, which match the Fishers flag. The goal for the Falcons was to have a motto of “great kids, great families.”

“Too often you hear stories of people misbehaving at youth sports games, from poor sportsmanship to yelling at players, coaches and umpires,” Zimmerman says. “We pride ourselves on having good families and kids and work on teaching integrity and sportsmanship. Kindness and inclusion are our goals in addition to playing competitive, strong baseball based on sound fundamentals.”

Most of the kids on the teams have played together for several years, and some of the coaches have coached kids on multiple teams.

“It really brings an aspect of family and community,” Zimmerman says. “I, for instance, coached most of the kids on the 13U (13 years and under) team with my older son, and it’s a treat to see the young men they’re growing into after having coached them over several years in various sports.”

Helping the Community

The Fishers Falcons’ commitment to helping the community has also grown this year.

“We have an opportunity to represent our community in other communities (as we travel to different towns in the area and even out of state), and we thought being a visible part of that community is important,” Zimmerman says. “So we pledged we would spend time helping others in small ways, whether it’s visiting a retirement community to speak to the people who live there and do crafts and games, helping people in need in some small way, or just cleaning up a park or baseball field.”

This year, the Fishers Falcons donated 50% of funds they raised to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana.

“Again, we felt like donating a portion of the funds we raised to a bigger cause was important,” Zimmerman says. “Many of the families in Fishers are lucky to be able to afford to provide their families a decent living, so we thought that if we are in a position to help others, we should take advantage of that opportunity.”

Zimmerman adds that the Fishers Falcons partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana “because they are an outstanding organization that helps families going through some of the roughest times imaginable and that touched us. We decided that we wanted to raise awareness, so as part of our uniforms we wear red and white striped socks as a tribute to their organization.”

Zimmerman noted that the team has already had some of the kids visit a local Ronald McDonald House, where they participated in cleanup activities.

“We’ve also done some canned food drives and visited a retirement community for an afternoon of crafts,” he says.

Overall, the team raised $3,300 this year for the Ronald McDonald House and presented the check to the organization.

For more information on the Fishers Falcons or to explore 2020 sponsorship opportunities, visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/fishersfalcons.

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