Photograph courtesy Reds Community Fund
The emotional bond between a city’s professional sports team and its fans is something to behold, yet difficult to put into words. Fans often treat the organization as “our team” even though it’s a privately owned business, and they expect some loyalty in return for the privilege of wearing the city’s name on uniforms.
Cincinnati and the Reds have a longer history together than any U.S. city and team, so the affection runs deep here. It’s no surprise that the Reds have one of Major League Baseball’s most active community outreach efforts. Charley Frank, executive director of the Cincinnati Reds Community Fund, is well aware of the team’s responsibility to uphold its half of the relationship.
“All of us [at the Reds] understand that we’re stewards of this public trust,” he says. “Fans have loved and supported the team for more than 150 years, and we hope they will for the next 150 years.”
Photograph courtesy Reds Community Fund
The Community Fund is a 501c3 nonprofit with its own board and its own fundraising efforts, selling Reds 50/50 raffle tickets at all home games and hosting public events like the Redlegs Run and a poker tournament. But the group’s most impactful work, Frank says, is out in community.
The Reds Youth Academy is a free year-round baseball and softball training complex for boys and girls ages 4–18, with manicured fields and indoor training and classroom facilities. Six full-time Community Fund employees run the operation with dozens of volunteer coaches, teachers, and mentors, plus occasional appearances from Reds players and alumni.
Photograph courtesy Reds Community Fund
Each summer the Community Fund organizes a “community makeover” in a specific neighborhood and brings together a host of partners—Cincinnati Zoo, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, GE Aviation, and others—to revitalize ballfields, parks, and other public spaces. The projects invest more than $1 million into each neighborhood. This summer’s work happens in Walnut Hills at Bush Recreation Center, Frederick Douglas Elementary School, Owl’s Nest Park, and other locations.
Frank says one of the highlights most summers is the Urban Learning Garden installed by Zoo staff to grow pollinator plants that are eventually installed at the Zoo or in the community. “The makeover efforts have so many layers beyond baseball,” he says. “Our goal is to pick the right projects so we can impact every kid in the chosen neighborhood, whether or not they ever play baseball or softball.”
Photograph courtesy Reds Community Fund
The last three makeover neighborhoods were Lincoln Heights, Avondale, and Bond Hill, says Frank. The Reds Community Fund also hosts outreach programs in Louisville, where the Reds’ Triple-A team plays, as well as Middletown and Dayton, Ohio (Single-A affiliate).
Volunteers fuel the Reds’ work in the community, from selling raffle tickets at Great American Ball Park to coaching baseball and softball teams to clearing trash from public spaces and planting trees. It’s a fun opportunity to give back to the team as it gives back to the community, which feels so Cincinnati.
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