The Reds Community Fund, St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Pitch In For Baseball & Softball (PIFBS) distributed close to $65,000 worth of baseball and softball equipment to 30 high school baseball and softball teams from Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, as well as three youth sports organizations on Wednesday.

Since 2017, these three partners have worked together to help local high schools and teams in Northern Kentucky. The program added four schools from Indiana, making this year’s equipment drive the largest to date.

Donated equipment included 1,500 baseballs, 500 softballs and 100 bats, along with gloves, cleats, catchers' gear, portable practice nets and more.

“Our focus is to remove equipment as the barrier to play for our kids and communities all around the world,” said Meredith Kim, CEO of Philadelphia-based PIFBS. “Adding the Indiana schools in this year, I thought it was just tremendous and so we just want to keep growing and reaching as many kids as possible.”

For the second year in a row, the equipment drive was held at the St. Elizabeth Training & Education Center in Erlanger, Ky.

Athletic directors, head coaches and a few student-athletes from the schools and organizations pulled their vehicles up to the building while staff and volunteers from PIFBS, the Reds Community Fund, St. Elizabeth Healthcare and In-Game Sports helped distribute the equipment. Reds mascots Mr. Redlegs and Rosie Red assisted as well.

“This is six years now that we have been part of this equipment drive, and it excites me when we get to this day because we are coming out of winter and heading into spring and baseball season,” said Bruno Giacomuzzi, senior vice president and COO of St. Elizabeth Healthcare. “And as a result of our growth into Indiana with St. Elizabeth Dearborn Hospital in Lawrenceburg, we are pleased to have expanded the drive to include the four Indiana high schools.”

The four Indiana schools included this year were South Ripley, Milan, Switzerland County and Rising Sun.

The 15 Northern Kentucky schools that benefitted from the equipment drive were Bellevue, Boone County, Campbell County, Dayton, Dixie Heights, Gallatin County, Grant County, Holy Cross, Covington Holmes, Lloyd Memorial, Ludlow, Newport, Newport Central Catholic, Scott and Simon Kenton.

In addition, Ludlow Athletic Club, Bellevue Vets and Grant County Little League received support.

The following evening, Reds Community Fund executive director Charley Frank hosted a Zoom call with coaches, players and representatives of the 30 teams to discuss the impact of the equipment drive and excitement for the upcoming season. In-Game Sports CEO Tom Gamble and Ludlow Independent Schools superintendent Mike Borchers also participated in the call.

Reds third-base and catching coach J.R. House joined the Zoom call to share his thoughts on the initiative.

“I feel it’s vital to the health and well-being of student-athletes everywhere to be given the opportunity to participate in sports,” said House. “And coming out of the pandemic, which has hurt so many people in so many different ways, it’s very important to make sure to take advantage of the opportunities to get our youth back to normalcy to be able to play baseball and softball again.”