A's pitcher Liam Hendriks has been named the recipient of the 2017 Dave Stewart Community Service Award, the team announced today. Stewart will present Hendriks with the award prior to the game on Wednesday, Sept. 27 in a special on-field ceremony.
The Dave Stewart Community Service Award is given annually to an A's player in recognition of charitable contributions throughout Northern California and across the nation.
Hendriks teamed up with Big League Impact and Striking Out Poverty with the mission of ending poverty in the Dominican Republic. Hendriks designed a "K" poverty T-shirt, and proceeds from shirt sales benefit this mission. During the 2017 season, he also pledged to donate $100 per strikeout and $200 per walk to the poverty campaign.
In addition, Hendriks has supported many A's community initiatives and programs, including serving meals at the St. Vincent de Paul free dining room for Thanksgiving in June; participating in Youth Sports Nation's Play Ball Tour, which combines music, sports, and community to celebrate the game of baseball in Oakland schools; A's Root Beer Float Day, which raises funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; A's Bowling Bash, which raised more than $100,000 for the Oakland A's Community Fund; Habitat for Humanity, where Hendriks helped build a playhouse at the Coliseum.
The award originated in 1996 in honor of Stewart's many years of community service in the Bay Area. Throughout the years, Stewart has been involved in many non-profit organizations, including the Oakland Boys & Girls Club and Team-Up for Youth, a program that supports healthy development for young people living in low-income communities through after-school sports and physical activity programs.
Previous winners of the Dave Stewart Community Service Award include: Ernie Young (1996), Scott Spiezio (1997), Tom Candiotti (1998), Art Howe (1999), Jason Giambi (2000), Terrence Long (2001), Tim Hudson (2002), Scott Hatteberg (2003), Eric Chavez (2004), Barry Zito (2005), Mark Kotsay (2006), Mark Ellis (2007), Dana Eveland (2008), Dallas Braden and Kurt Suzuki (2009), Craig Breslow (2010), Josh Willingham (2011), Jonny Gomes (2012), Sean Doolittle (2013), Jed Lowrie (2014), and Stephen Vogt (2015, 2016).