The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation is about a lot more than just baseball.
The Baltimore-based nonprofit works throughout the country with Boys & Girls Clubs, Police Athletic League centers, inner-city schools and other organizations serving America?s most distressed communities. The kids come for baseball, but they leave with the life lessons of perseverance, loyalty and positive thinking that Cal Sr. taught his sons, Cal Jr. and Billy.
“What Cal Jr. and Billy achieved on the baseball field doesn?t mean as much to them as what they?re doing now,” said Steve Salem, executive director of the foundation. “They don?t want their legacy to be about baseball ? they want to make a difference.”
Salem, 45, has helped the Ripken sons build the foundation since he joined as executive director in March 2006. He joined the group after working for 15 years with Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
In more than two years, Salem has worked to build the foundation?s board of directors, more than triple its budget and expand its programs that serve “the neediest, most at-risk kids.”
“Steve has played such a large role in the growth of the foundation,” Ripken Jr. said. “He?s very well-connected and he thinks very big in terms of making the Cal Sr. Foundation an organization with national reach.”
To take the foundation national, Salem introduced the group?s Badges for Baseball program, a youth-development, crime prevention initiative that pairs law enforcement with at-risk youth. The program has been endorsed by the Attorneys General from 12 states, including Maryland.
“It made perfect sense that it happen in Maryland, for who Cal Ripken is and what he represents,” said Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. “A lot of people are searching for answers with how to help children in low socioeconomic groups. My view is one of the most powerful answers is mentor programs, and this program really does that.”
The foundation?s programs currently operate in 40 states and 300 communities, Salem said. In 2007, the group reached more than 80,000 at-risk youth across the country. The foundation expects to reach more than 100,000 this year.
“We continue to serve the kids that nobody?s reaching,” Salem said. “You plant the seeds and watch them grow.”
The expanded programs helped Salem build the foundation?s board and its budget. When Salem joined the foundation, its board was comprised of about 10 members from the Greater Baltimore area. Today, the board has about 30 members from more than seven states.
The foundation?s budget has nearly tripled in the past two years to nearly $10 million. Salem has increased private funding, including more than $2 million from Peter Angelos and the Baltimore Orioles.
“We?ve developed programs to give our donors something to believe in and invest in,” Salem said.
Ripken Jr. said feedback from law enforcement officials about the effect the foundation?s programs are having on children has been nothing but positive.
“That?s very gratifying to me and my family,” Ripken Jr. said. “It?s not about baseball. Baseball is just a hook to get the kids engaged, and once they?re working with us, we can try to make a difference in their lives.”
