Continuing a longstanding tradition during the days before Thanksgiving, the College of Staten Island Baseball Team once again partnered with Teddy Atlas and the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation to pack and distribute Thanksgiving meals to families in need. Their efforts helped deliver well over 1,000 Thanksgiving dinners to local area families this year, and the CSI Baseball program worked alongside the Atlas Foundation in this endeavor every year since 2007.
Beginning on Friday evening, the team spent the night loading trucks with all of the donated meals. On Saturday, they were stationed at the distribution headquarters at 543 Cary Avenue where they distributed all of the collected turkeys and sides.
“This is the 17th year helping out the Teddy Atlas Foundation,” said Head Coach Michael Mauro. “Teddy is an amazing man and we are honored at CSI to be a part of his mission.” Mauro and his team were also moved by the ability to interact with the many recipients of the distributed meals, and the CSI Head Coach was excited to see this volunteer effort bring the best out of his players. “Giving out 1100 turkeys and sides to people in need on Staten Island was a great experience, and I’m very proud of the love and compassion shown by my team as we met so many people who will now have food on their table for Thanksgiving.”
The Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation is a Staten Island-based community service organization that provides financial, legal and emotional support to individuals and organizations in need, and focuses particularly on the needs of children. It was founded in 1997 by boxing trainer and commentator, Teddy Atlas, in order to honor the memory of his father. In the spirit of Dr. Atlas, who provided free medical care to those who could not afford it and made house calls to give personal care to his patients until he was 80 years old, the Foundation has attempted since its inception to ease the burden of the less fortunate among us. And it accomplishes this in a very human way, in a way which preserves the dignity of the people it helps.
– Story courtesy of CSI Athletics