PHILADELPHIA -- Maybe this is the beginning of something even greater.
Mike Tollin and Bill Bedrossian couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park. It was a clear, crisp night in South Philadelphia. Hundreds of people had gathered to spend the night sleeping in the ballpark’s outfield as part of the Covenant House’s Sleep Out event. It raised $1 million for Covenant House, which is the largest nonprofit in North America across five countries, providing shelter and services to homeless and trafficked youth.
Tollin is a filmmaker. Bedrossian is president and CEO of Covenant House International. They have known each other for years in Los Angeles. They participated in a Sleep Out outside Covenant House’s offices in L.A in 2016. They discovered there that they both grew up outside Philly and loved the Phillies.
“I said to Mike, wouldn’t it be amazing if someday, some way, somehow, we could find an [MLB] owner who would actually be willing to stage a Sleep Out on the field?” Tollin said.
“Yeah, sure, Mike,” Bedrossian said.
But Tollin already knew an owner. He knew Phillies managing partner John Middleton.
“I didn’t know at the time that John Middleton and his wife [Leigh] had been working for 20 years to try to eradicate homelessness in Philadelphia,” Tollin said. “I think the goal is -- and I’ll say this because I’m really going to go for it -- to make this the model and to go to all the other clubs, starting with the ones that have Covenant House [Los Angeles, Anaheim, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, New York, Houston and Washington]. But also in any city with a big league team, there’s going to be a homeless youth population. Imagine doing this everywhere. Think about how MLB does ‘Stand Up to Cancer.’ Stand up to homelessness.”
“This is amazing,” Bedrossian said. “This is a culmination of my childhood dreams. Being a Phillies fan, I was here for the first game here in 2004. I couldn’t have imagined sleeping out here on behalf of Covenant House.”
It’s good to know people like Middleton.
“Homelessness doesn’t tend to attract big donors giving lots of money,” Middleton said. “Our focus philanthropically is to focus on disadvantaged people who are kind of on the margins of society. Homelessness just tends to be overlooked. It gets overlooked politically. It gets overlooked philanthropically. We really liked the idea of helping.”
Leigh has worked with the homeless for years. So has John, who has been on Project HOME’s board of directors for more than 15 years.
“Professional sports teams have a platform,” Middleton said. “They should promote important causes. God knows the Phillies have been doing that long before I got to the scene. It’s part of our culture, and it’s really great that people jumped at the chance to participate.”
Former Phillies like Larry Bowa, Cole Hamels, Dickie Noles, Tommy Greene, Milt Thompson, Mickey Morandini and Ruben Amaro Jr. participated on Thursday night. Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy emceed the program -- it included a video message from Phillies lefty Jesús Luzardo -- before everybody grabbed their sleeping bags and cardboard boxes and grabbed a patch of grass on the field.
They raised a lot of money. They raised awareness.
And perhaps it’ll get the ball rolling for more Sleep Outs like this.
“I’d like to see this here again,” Middleton said.