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Home Opener: Indians plan for off-the-field charity efforts

April 12, 2010  |  Posted by Tom Beres, WKYC

The team's co-sponsoring "Kick-It," a campaign to raise research dollars to help young cancer patients.

Young Quinn Clarke came up with the idea. He's 10 years old and facing his second bout with cancer.

"He told us it was time to find a cure. Kickball is his favorite game. He asked if we could have a kickball game to raise money forresearch," his mom, Allison Clarke said.

Team President Paul Dolan became aware of Quinn's idea and suggested the team assist.

"The organization was looking to find a medical cause we could put our arms around," said Community Outreach/Charities Director Steven Frohwerk.

Now teams from schools, companies and neighborhoods are raising money by playing kickball.

Teams raising $2,500 get to play at Progressive Field.

"The Indians helped us bring kickball to the major leagues. The Indians believe, just like Quinn does, that kickball is going to cure pediatric cancer," Quinn's mom said.

The Indians sponsor and donate to a host of fundraising efforts.

"Community investment is something we take very seriously. We try to create programs that focus on important needs," Frohwerk said.

The team continues to support RBI, an effort to teach and promote baseball to inner city youth.

It's Fill-the-Stands programs sets aside 13 Wednesday games for charity fund-raising.

Thirteen different charities sell tickets to one game. They get to keep $5 from each ticket they sell and the Indians donate $1 from every other ticket.

The team just started a program where anyone volunteering four hours with legitimate charity or community groups can get two tickets to certain games.

"Last year we gave back over $2 million," said Frohwerk.

The goal this year?

"To continue to do more," he said.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=133948