The baseball season may be over for the Jersey Shore Blue Claws but the good that is done by the club’s “Home Runs for Heroes” program will continue for years to come.
The Ocean First (Bank) Foundation partners with the Blue Claws on this initiative which raises funds for local military-focused charities.
“This is our 17th season doing the ‘Home Runs for Heroes’ program with the Blue Claws and we are very proud of it,” said Kathy Durante, Executive Director of the Ocean First Foundation. “We hope to continue the program for many years.”
Durante confirmed that this year, the Ocean First Foundation will donate $76,000 in total to the participating charities in the ‘Home Runs for Heroes’ program.
“That brings the total amount we have donated since the start of the program to $772,000,” said Durante.
The program works like this – each participating non-profit organization involved with the program picks an inning at the start of the season. There are two non-profits assigned to each of the nine innings.
“The Foundation chooses non-profits that support and provide services to active-duty military and veterans and their families including food supply, medical, and quality-of-life programs,” said Durante who has been working for the Ocean First Foundation for 20 years.
During the season when a Blue Claws player hits a home run at Shore Town Ballpark, $1,000 is donated to each of two non-profits that chose the inning in which the player hit the home run.
The most prolific long-ball inning for the Blue Claws this season was the fifth – eight home runs were hit in that frame, resulting in $8,000 being donated to each of the two charities which had picked that inning – Deborah Hospital Foundation and the Navy-Marine Corp Relief Society.
“We stake each of the participating non-profits to $1,000 to ensure every one of the non-profits gets something and we go from there,” said Durante.
Durante said that over the years, there have been many special memories but one that stands out has to do with a service dog named “Hero.”
“In 2019, the Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski II Memorial Fund, one of our participating non-profits, asked us to name one of the service dogs they were donating that year,” she recalled. “Customers and employees got to vote on the name and ‘Hero’ won.”
