Blue Wahoos Named Top Community Service Team In Double-A South
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos were chosen as the Double-A South’s nominee for the Minor League Baseball CommUNITY Champion Award, given to the team that showed the greatest commitment to community service during the 2021 baseball season. “Our mission as an organization is to improve the quality of life in our
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos were chosen as the Double-A South’s nominee for the Minor League Baseball CommUNITY Champion Award, given to the team that showed the greatest commitment to community service during the 2021 baseball season.
“Our mission as an organization is to improve the quality of life in our community, and we’re proud to be chosen by our league as a nominee for the CommUNITY Champion Award,” team president Jonathan Griffith said. “Our staff and our players are focused on making a positive impact on our community and helping to make Pensacola the greatest place to live.”
The CommUNITY Champion Award is a new honor in 2021, replacing previous league-specific awards. Previously, the Blue Wahoos were four-time winners of the Southern League Community Service Award before transitioning into the Double-A South in 2021.
Across the nation, each league in Minor League Baseball selected one team to represent their league at the Major Fun Awards at the Baseball Winter Meetings, held December 6-8 in Orlando. The Blue Wahoos were selected as the top community service performing team in the Double-A South and were represented by team president Jonathan Griffith and other staff members at the Winter Meetings award ceremony.
In 2021, Blue Wahoos staff and players participated in hundreds of hours of community service across Pensacola and the organization made over $600,000 in charitable and in-kind donations. The team’s annual reading program reached over 6,000 local elementary school children, helping encourage them to read over 24,000 books. Staff partnered with Waste Management locally to renovate multiple baseball and softball fields in the community, and the team’s players created an online baseball clinic, allowing them to give instruction to local youth athletes safely during the ongoing pandemic.
The Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, were chosen from the field of league nominees as the overall 2021 Minor League Baseball CommUNITY Champion Award winner.