$61,000 Worth of Home Runs

I’m sure some of you got to at least one Jersey Shore BlueClaws game this season and hopefully the home team hit a home run while you were there.  As far as you were concerned that homer was only worth the number of runs that it brought in but actually is was worth much more.

The BlueClaws along with the OceanFirst Foundation just completed their 14^th season of Home Runs for Heroes and we at 92.7 WOBM/Townsquare Media have been honored to be part of the program since its inception.  Every time a BlueClaws player hits a home run at Shoretown Ballpark the OceanFirst Foundation awards $1000 to one of 14 participating non-profit local military-based charitable organizations.  On opening night the organizations randomly selected what inning they wanted for the season as the one in which home runs would benefit their cause.

Going into this season the total awarded through Home Runs for Heroes was $499,000 and you can now add another $61,000 to that total thanks to the power of BlueClaws players.  For what it’s worth the big innings for long balls were the 4^th and the 5^th and as a result Chariot Riders, the Lt. Dennis W. Zilinski II Memorial Fund, Vetwork and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society/Lakehurst each received awards of $8000.

The success of this program is all due to the generosity of the OceanFirst Foundation which was created 25 years ago by OceanFirst Bank to provide grants to help families, organizations, schools and communities in central and southern New Jersey.  In those 25 years they have awarded over $43 million which has clearly made an impact in local communities.

Thanks to them and the Jersey Shore BlueClaws and of course all the organizations that support retired and active duty military members along with their families.