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Home > Archive > Jul 26, 2007

The Home Team
By Stephen Vincent
While the Roadrunners’ season has been rocky on the field, the first-year franchise is doing its part off the field, finding ways to contribute to the community, whether it is helping people who struggle, aiding charitable organizations or encouraging students to read.
The Roadrunners are trying to make a connection with the residents of the city, and at the same time find ways to help improve the community.
A better St. George is a better place for the Roadrunners to do business.
“We want people to say we got a great ball club in the Roadrunners,” said Ed Larson, the team's assistant general manager. “We want people to see that we want to be as much a part of this community as they do. All the workers live here in St. George. This is not a team owned by some out-of-town entity.”
The Roadrunners have been involved in a number of charity endeavors.
The most prolific charity work they've done so far is to have their ballplayers read to children this summer as part of the Dixie Reads program.
When school starts, the Roadrunners will continue to support the program, but the emphasis of their involvement will shift from elementary-age kids to the children in secondary education.
In conjunction with Dixie Reads, the team has gotten involved with the re-publishing of Lyman Hafen's biography on local baseball legend Bruce Hurst.
The team is also working to set up programs to provide tickets to kids who read throughout the summer or visit educational places, such as the Wildlife Museum.
The Roadrunners are also providing tickets to Big Brothers and Big Sisters. This will allow for the big brothers and big sisters to take the child they are mentoring to a Roadrunners game.
Best Buy also purchased tickets, which the team discounted, to give away to local charities.
This is a trend that Larson would like to see continue.
“We'd love to have people buy tickets that they can give to the children's shelter or some other charity,” Larson said. “We don't want to be the only ones giving tickets; we want others to have a chance to do that.”
The team has also been working with United Way.
Reggie the Roadrunner will be a visible part of the Roadrunners' work during the off-season. When the players return home, Reggie will be the most-recognizable member of the St. George ball club.
The team hopes to use him throughout the community.
Larson said the team is looking to get involved in other charitable deeds.
“We're open to any idea anyone has,” Larson said.
Larson said he hopes the Roadrunners' charitable work shows they want to remain in St. George.
“One of the problems you have in the minors leagues is that it's fluid and not concrete,” Larson said. “The image we want to create is that we want to be in St. George for years and not just be here on the owner's whim. The way you do that is to be involved in the community.”

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