Howard receives club's Clemente recognition

Phillies 1B is one of 30 nominees for MLB's philanthropy award

September 21st, 2016

PHILADELPHIA -- 's Phillies' career is nearing its end, but he received one more award Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies presented him their Roberto Clemente Award for representing "the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field."
Each club nominates its winner to be considered for the overall award in tribute to Clemente's achievements and character by recognizing current players who truly understand the value of helping others.
There is still time to vote for Howard for the MLB award. Fans are encouraged to participate in the new process of selecting the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award by posting any nominee's voting hashtags to MLB's official social media accounts, @MLB on Twitter and Facebook.com/MLB. Howard's hashtag is #VoteHoward.
Howard's works in the community are almost too numerous to mention.
He and his wife, Krystle, created The Ryan Howard Big Piece Foundation in 2013. The foundation focuses on "engaging children, specifically those who lack athletic and educational opportunities, in the fundamental area of literacy." Its first program, The Ryan Howard Reading Challenge, encouraged students in a Philadelphia public school to read 20 minutes a day, seven days a week. The program resulted in more than one million minutes of reading by students, which Howard used as an incentive to award the school a grant for a new reading room. The interactive, baseball-themed room, dubbed Howard's Homeroom, is filled with books, computers and iPads for students to read, create and dream.
Howard raised $75,000 to provide the room by holding events on his off-days.
Of course, the new Phillies Urban Youth Academy was unveiled this summer in South Philadelphia and it was named the Ryan Howard Training Center.

"It's been our passion to give back to our community, especially when it relates to baseball and education," Howard said in July. "It's an extreme honor to be part of something we hope will help thousands and thousands of kids."
Ryan and Krystle wrote a children's book series called "Little Rhino." On June 8, Howard and Krystle invited students for a pregame Little Rhino Read-Along, during which he and his teammates acted out scenes from one of the books. The performance shared the joy of reading with K-5 grade students and fundraised for the Phillies Urban Youth Academy. Ryan and the Phillies will soon announce his significant and long-term commitment toward the construction of the Academy's educational building.
Ryan's reading program will also be announced as a featured part of the curriculum.