Welcome to the Judges Chambers
Pulling Together
I was recently asked when was the first time that I felt the need to take on a leadership role. I believe I was in fith grade. My class had a special chance to go to science camp for an overnight trip. Once we arrived, two of my buddies started arguing and it escalated into an actual fist fight. There wasn’t anyone else around, so I just stepped in. I told them to knock it off, and that it didn’t matter who or what started it - only that we were on this trip to learn together. It was a privilege for us to be there and we didn’t need these guys taking anything away from that.
Last year with the Yankees, my teammates and I all agreed to work together towards getting to the World Series, no matter what. We made sacrifices to follow protocols that kept us on the field and playing games. For us to even have a season, as short as it was - much had to go right for not only us, but for all of baseball. It had to do with commitment to each other to get the job done. This meant we couldn’t gather as a team for dinner outside of the game, and we couldn’t even engage with fans before the game. We did recognize that we owed this commit-ment to each other. Even though we didn’t quite make it to the World Series, we saw that a team can do amazing things when we all work together.
That lesson has helped me grow the ALL RISE Foundation as well. As the season ended, I saw huge opportunities to join with my local communities to help them pull together and inspire our youth to get involved. During Covid, donations at the Central California Blood Bank were down 40% - 60% because of the lack of blood drives through the schools. To help out, we joined their campaign to help raise awareness about the need for blood donations. Valley Children’s Hospital held their Kid’s Day in March, and I was pleased to help raise donations. And once again, ALL RISE is partnering with #ICANHELP and their Digital For Good Confer-ence to help stamp out negativity and teach our youth to use social media to spread kindness.
As the world starts to open back up, we are eager to get back to “normal.” We all have a special opportunity to keep working as a team, to push towards success, and to not leave our kids behind. I invite you to stay connected with the ALL RISE Foundation, either through our website or social channels to see what we have in store this year. If we all work together,I think we will accomplish great things!
Aaron
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