November 16, 2024 • 30 mins
Paula Harris is the Senior Vice President of Community Affairs for the Astros and she is the Executive Director of the Astros Foundation. Their primary focus is bringing education &baseball & sports to kids around Houston. They fund sports programs, buy tens of thousands of uniforms, build baseball fields in poor neighborhood and wait to hear what they did for the Uvalde community!
The Astros Foundation also deploys an army of volunteers to help other Orgs like Medical Bridges. Go to: www.mlb.com/astros/community
The Astros Foundation also deploys an army of volunteers to help other Orgs like Medical Bridges. Go to: www.mlb.com/astros/community
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public Affairs show and iHeartMedia Broadcast.
Ourtist Lamer says that the opinions expressed on this show
do not necessarily reflect those held by this radio station,
it's management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurent I am the Texan from France, and one
(00:26):
of the things about being French is that I did
not grow up with baseball. And so today as I
welcome the Astros Foundation, one of the preeminent nonprofit organizations
in this great city of Houston, which is rich in
philanthropy because we have all these organizations like the Astros Foundation,
I'm coming in as a layman who learned about baseball
by watching that Robert Redford movie The Natural in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Love that film.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The music is so beautiful, the soundtrack is worth listening
to alone. And I moved to the US, and I
think it took me fifteen years before I set foot
in Minute Made Park. It might have been, and I
finally saw a game between the Astros and the Cardinals,
and I was floored by how awesome the ambiance the
environment is in minim Made Park. I expected the stadium
(01:10):
to be Grandios and it is. It's a marvel of
technology and architecture. It's the people inside, the families, the kids,
the way everybody was really relaxed, really nice, even to
the Cardinal fans who lost, so I guess.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That might be one reason why everybody was happy to them.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
But all that to say that I felt a really
strong pull from the family angle of baseball, and it
was the first time and it was kind of like
an epiphany. And my guest today is Paula Harris. She
is the senior vice president of Community Affairs for the
Astros and she is also the executive director of the
Astros Foundation. If you want to follow along with us,
(01:50):
you can find the Astros Foundation. The easiest way is
just to google it Astros Foundation. You'll find it. You're
going to see a really long list of activities and
charitable events that they guide. They also make grants, and
we're going to talk all about that. I want to
point out that you'll be happy to see that they're very,
very oriented towards youth. They are leveraging the enormous power
(02:13):
that these MLB played, these baseball geniuses have. They're young, handsome, charismatic,
they're surrounded by talented people, because every athlete is a
member of a team and that's how they become great.
And that influence is used to bring in kids and
encourage them to well, you know, finish learning how to
read for the youngest ones and finish high school for
(02:34):
the oldest one. And they've got a tremendous success rate
into motivating people into doing the right thing. Paula, you've
got you're part of the Astros. The Astros Foundation is
not separate from the Astros.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
We're all one big, happy family. It's our five oh
one c. So it allows our fans and our sponsors
and partners the opportunity to give to youth baseball and
our other pillars which include childhood, cancer or military appreciation, homelessness,
(03:09):
domestic violence, and of course, as I said, youth baseball
is our big well, youth sports. We do a lot
with education as you're talking about to but this this
is the nonprofit arm that's out in the community about
every day. We're doing something.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Am I right to assume that you're primarily focused on youth,
So we are.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We have a large focus on youth and youth sports
and youth baseball. We probably have about twenty thousand kids
that we engage with every year, in some youth directly
directly because we have a academy, Astro's Youth Academy, and
so every day, seven days a week, practically, there's something
(03:51):
going on out at our Astro's Youth Academy and acres home.
So we have a nice building. We have practice going on,
we have leagues out there, we prepare kids, we have
educational programming going on. So there's always something going out
at the Astros Youth Academy.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So, for instance, the youth will go to the academy
to play baseball.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
That's the attractor, but you.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Have tutoring services and support services for them. So they
show up, they get a they get a nice end
of day meal agute as they say in French, a
snack is that one?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So so there are leagues out there, yeah, so baseball
and softball. We have about six fields out there, and
so there are teams and leagues and practice and strength.
But we also have a very nice building where we
do the classroom part or think about what else baseball entels.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How to be.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
A sports commentator, We'll have classes on that, how to
be an umpire, we have so many of our kids
that make money during the summer umpiring for little league
games because we have gotten them certified and being an up.
So outside the legal, statistic part, the community, part of
the marketing media, we have a lot going on out there.
(05:09):
Not to mention, one of our rooms in our building
is called the Conico Phillips College Readiness Room, so getting
ready for FASTVA, your college readiness, your algebra readiness. We
last week we had for middle school STEM night, and
so the kids were just working on STEM programming and
(05:30):
they may not have been there for baseball, although baseball
is going on on the outside. We'll have programming in
our building all the time. Yeah, And STEM stands for Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math. This is oversimplifying the matter, but if
you could teach every kid to learn how to read,
have self respect and be respectful and that just you know, hello, please,
(05:52):
thank you, goodbye, and then a good strong team, a
team ethic talked to them through sports. Those are not
enough basics to function well in society exactly, and we're
lacking that and enormous numbers. The reason we spend a
lot of time with our kids on the etiquette and
(06:13):
the character, yeah, is because We not only want to
make great baseball players, we want to make great citizens.
And we travel with these kids, these kid we had
six kids at the World Series there in LA two
weeks ago, right. We take these kids everywhere for competitions,
for tournaments and so because a lot of times it's
(06:36):
the first time on traveling outside of the city or
on a plane. But we want them to be prepared.
We want them to look nice, act nice, and be
prepared not only to compete you know in the on
the on the diamond or on the ball field, but
be able to compete in life.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Is it hard to teach them these things?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, I mean it just takes. You have to layer it.
You know, it's not one lesson saying yeah, go out
and be nice. You have to teach it. Win there
on the field, you have to bring them in the classroom.
You have to talk about etiquette and how to treat
people and how to treat others.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
My instinct is that the youth is we're as young people,
that's what we kind of want. We want a good structure,
we want good leaders. We're a monkey see monkey doo species,
and that's not.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
What you're seeing at home our school. Then it's almost
you can't say it's not your fault, but really you
just haven't been taught.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, well, I mean a child is pretty That's what
we talk about the innocence of children right there. There
are a product of their environment and they get dropped
into it by fate or whatever you want to call it.
But I think that that's one of the things that
we see a lot of these foundations that are tied
to sports teams, and you know, honestly, a lot of
times people just sort of brush them off as oh,
(07:50):
they're just doing.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
That to look good.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
We gave them a tax dollars too, so they could
build the stadium. They've got to do something in return.
What people don't realize is that if these these programs
are well managed, if they're successful and big, and I
would say that the size of an organization is indicative
of how successful successful it is at raising money.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And if it's successful in raising money, that means that.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's message is successful. That means that people are into it.
These programs really work if you can put even a
mentor who's on TV, but you bring a child closer
to that mentor because now they're part of the astros foundation.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They might not meet their hero right away, and maybe
they'll get as close as watching them walk by into
the you know, onto the field or something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
People don't realize just how powerful that is and how
that will compel even a kid who has problems at home,
attitude problems, to start modulating their anger, their aggressive nature
because they want to be part of this team and
it can change their lives.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Absolutely. Our kids, I want to say, they live in
Minute May Park. They're always there.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Too, though I'm kind of I'm kind of jealous. That's
a cool place to go to work. Radios man, I
love coming.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, No, they do. They're in all the games. They're
they're before games, after games, program and they're on the field.
A lot of our kids or some of our kids
are the ball boys.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, during games.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So they travel sometimes with the team. So they are
that's part of who they are.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
It's obvious that you're going to be enchanted by a
great baseball player if you're young. People don't always realize
is that once the organization gets going, the older peers
become mentors to the younger peers too. So you're going
they come in because of baseball, but they actually progress
(09:41):
and probably stay in the program because of the new
family that they form, these friends, and you could actually remove.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That from baseball, it would still be functional to.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Them, absolutely absolutely, and the success they see, So everybody's
not going to be a professional baseball player, although we
do have two to three hundred at any time in
college playing baseball.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
They come through our program.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Although we did have last year the first kid that
grew up since he was seven years old in the
Astros Youth Academy, went through our programming, went off to
college and it's now was our first the Astros first
round draft pick last year.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He's playing with the team. Now.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Holy, he's coming up through our through our farm league,
so he will be with us soon. He's you know,
we don't triple A. It's a process to get to
the majors. But he's in one of our minor league
teams and wow, he's gone really fast. He's already in
sugar Land, which is right before he comes up to
the Astros. So they see that success. But they also
(10:40):
see the success of kids who have just come through
the program have gone to college and come back and
volunteer and that are you know, productive citizens. So they
see that and it's so so important. Not only that
we bring in our sponsors a lot, so they get
to see they're always around professionals from Slumberge and Chevron
and Kanaco and Oxy the list goes on and on.
(11:03):
So they always see these guys and they get to
interact and gauge, and so they have this mentality of
giving back themselves, right, Yeah, and that's expected of them.
So as they, like you said, as they matriculate up,
they come back and they coach or they volunteer. They're
always part of the family, and.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
They learn how to function in this high functioning society
where people are generally polite and diplomatic with each other,
and all those things are sorely lacking from our education system.
We're not doing a very good job of teaching kids
how to regulate their emotions. I mean, only thirty percent
of third graders know how to read when they move
(11:43):
into fourth grade. Get that number in your head, people.
You take one hundred HISD kids that are graduating to
fourth grade, only thirty of them can read at a
third grade level. The others are pretty much condemned to
being at best functionally illiterate.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
For the rest of us, lives.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
The difference between being completely illiterate and functionally illiterate is
that you can read a menu.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
If you're functionally literate, you.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Can sort of get by, but you can't fill out
a complicated job application, even for a managerial position in
a restaurant. Those are restaurants are maligned, but they're wonderful
stepping stones, and becoming a manager can be a first
step at a very prosperous life. First of all, managing
(12:30):
a restaurant is a great job. It can be, but
you have to know how to read.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And so one of the things that is one of
the things that the astros we do understand and something
it's one of those things that needs all hands on desk. Yeah,
And so our part for that we partner with Oxy
and we have a literacy bus that we give out
free books all over this city year round. In partnership
with Houston Independent School District Houston Public Library. We have
a literacy bus that goes to schools, after school programming,
(12:58):
boys and girls clubs wherever it's requested. With these retired
librarians read to the kids and everybody gets free books.
We also have a partnership with Reliant Energy a summer
because what happens is kids learn August through May and
then they play games and video games for the summer.
(13:18):
And so we're back at square one, right, So we
have a summer reading that's exactly it's called the summer slides.
And so square two we have a program with reliant
energy where we have summer it's a get past the
summer slide. It's a reading program, and the amount of
(13:38):
books you read, you get gifts and prizes and parties
at your school. And of course we culminated with a
two thousand kids in the park in August celebrating summer reading.
Everybody in their family gets free tickets and they come
to the game and we honor them for their summer reading.
So really really feel well as part of the Houston
(14:01):
community and surrounding areas. It is our job to make
sure we're doing also what needs to be done to
promote the basic reading.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, and just off the top of my head, the
success rate of children who are past the third grade
who take remedial lessons to learn how to read is
sky high. Teaching how to read is something we know
how to do. You can even learn how to read
fairly easily in your eighties or nineties. It's never too late,
and it's actually fairly easy to do, especially if you
(14:31):
have some basics. You've been in the country for a
long time and you just never got around to go
getting over that hump. There's a bunch of organizations in
town that can help you do that, and you can
send me an email if you'd like some help finding them.
Texan from France at gmail dot com. Texan from France
at gmail dot com. You are listening to Houston PA
Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent and my
(14:53):
guest is here from the Astros Foundation. Paula Harris is
the senior vice president of Community Affairs for the Astros
and she is the executive director of the Astros Foundation. Paula,
you've already mentioned you are keeping an eye on veterans
affairs and you're you're doing things for our military veterans.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So we honor our military at every game, Yeah, we do,
and so we also bring them out on the field.
We honor those that participate in the different wars. But
also this week we had a big military retirement ceremony
on the field postseason doors of close, but they have
they get to come and use our facility and and
(15:35):
have celebrations, and so we're really really open to the
support we give to Combined Arms or Great Organization, Great
Organization and all of the organizations that we work with,
the Coast Guard Foundation, and we during the season we
celebrate everybody's anniversary, the Marines, the Navy, you know, and
(15:57):
the military appreciation women in the military. So you really
get a strong military feel and love for this country.
And see that baseball we present. We are I think
very farward thinking and making sure that we honor those
that have sacrificed for this country.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, and y'all have never let up.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
We went through an age when doing such things was
a little off the mainstream. People were took political sides
that had nothing to do with the soldiers and sort
of carried over their political feelings onto how they treat
the soldiers. And I've never been a big fan of that.
And because of that, I have noticed that the baseball
(16:39):
teams very often have stayed very true to their veterans.
You also work to help on the homelessness population in Houston,
which has unfortunately exploded over the past few years.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
We do, and of course we're downtown and so we
see it every day. I do too, and so Jim Crane,
our owner. About nine years ago he started a partnership
with New Hope Housing and so cool every year we
do a big Diamond Dreams Gala sponsored by Chevron, where
we give we've given to the Houston community overall, we've
(17:14):
given sixty million dollars but probably about to homeless five
six million dollars that we give to make sure that
organizations that are building homeless apartment shelters places are intact
and that support is something that we see every day
(17:35):
and we know it's it's ongoing. It's hard to win
that one, but we know that we need to continue
to bring attention to it and to bring funds to it,
and that's what we do. So we have this Diamond
Dreams Gala, which just happened here lately in November. But
it's big party on the field, thousands of people in
(17:58):
town and all of the funds and are for homelessness
and in partnership with New Hope Housing.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I have the Star of Hope on the show
regularly and they've told me several times that they get
help from the Astros Foundation do it must be grants
and also tickets for their people.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Their tickets grants. It's just the easiest and most valuable
thing you have to give away.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
As tickets, well, that is very easy and through the foundation,
I give out ninety thousand tickets a season, really ninety thousand.
So every game has groups, Boys and Girls club, youth groups,
senior groups, teacher groups, first responder groups who don't have
to pay for the tickets. They don't have to pay
for the tickets at all. So that is something we
do in combination with the MLB. And one of our
(18:43):
favorites is the Salvation Army and they they'll call and
they'll have someone that they want to honor or they
want to you know, just treat very special. And they
will roll out the red carpet for some of their
clients that probably never had a birthday or never been
to a game before, you know, that are celebrating a
(19:07):
big win. We we show them a good time over there.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I think that another elephant in the room is that
you keep mentioning these massive corporations that are your partners.
And that's another thing that I'm not fan of the
media constantly piling up on these massive corporations which are
sometimes guilty of evil things.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, but they do some good stuff too.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's they're people and they're big organizations. So and I
know this from our cluster here, the iHeart Cluster. It's
very different from them when in New York, for instance,
the way people think, the way people.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Treat each other, we're just different.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
So you can't assume that just because it's Chevron, that
it's like the Chevron in Washington or LA or you know,
they have branches.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Over here in Houston are in the community, yeah, working
our part, raising money, or that they are as part
of their the money their revenue, they are giving away, yeah,
to some really good stuff, and you have to appreciate
and with back.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Then I'm also surprised that very often I meet with people.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Who work with Schumberger or Chevron, and they're unaware of
the charitable gifts that those companies are making. They're unaware
of the opportunities that have to volunteer with the team
on other things. You know, it's I guess that you
just ignore the emails or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
But when they find out that they actually have some.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Leverage, and that's part of the conversation we're having here
is like, maybe you work for a big corporation and
you know that they do some things, maybe you have
the power to orient some of that money. But the
point being is that the power that the Astros are
harnessing here is actually the power of all the major
media and corporations in talent, and you're in a unique
position to do that.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And our brand, our brand, yeah, is a big brand,
and it's a great brand, and we're winners and.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Exactly to align your brand with ours is a you know,
it amplifies your mission. And so I talked to about
the Astros Youth Academy, but we also have ten fields
around the city that are sponsored by these same folks
that I've been calling out, our community leaders, and we
take at the price are the costs out of Little
(21:15):
League Baseball around this city. So to draw families out
to Moody Park or East End our Sunnyside, we take
care of the entire league, the uniforms, the equipment, the coaches,
and that is through our Community Leaders program, and that's
how we get to touch so many kids. They don't
have to come to the North Side. Ten fields that
(21:37):
are in Houston city parks. It's a partnership with the park.
We do the maintenance and the upkeep on all of
these baseball fields and softball fields.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think it's both great and also the right thing
to do. It just feels like it should. This is
almost secondhand. It's like, Yep, we're so successful, our brand
is so recognizable.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
We have this power. We have to use it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
We have to use it, and you have to make
sure you are making a difference right that you're really
being able to positively affect our community. Its Houston. A
great example is after the incident in Valdi.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Oh yeah, the mass shooting, the school shooting.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So we went down there and we just took over things.
We went down there in such a massive a We
take care of all their fields, built concession stands. But
a couple of months after, Jim Crane and the entire
Astro's family went down there and just did one big
love fest. It was like you were at a game.
You got all of the free stuff, you know, come
(22:36):
out to the parks and we're at the hospital, we're
at the parks, we were at the community center. The
kids that lost the families that lost their lives got
a big private reception with us with big pictures and
mentos and jerseys with their babies' names on it. So
my director of my youth academy, he says, when I
go down there, I'm the mayor because we go down
(22:58):
there now every year we take our youth academy kids
to play. The kids in Uvalde. We just have a
that is one of our community leader parks. Now we
are down there, and we brought this town to Houston
to a game. They got into the game early. We
shut down everything. The players came and talked one in
one with the families. The Houston Police Department met them
(23:20):
in Katie and shut down the freeways. The buses we
sent down.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The only time I might not complain about that brought
right to the park.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Houston Fire Department had their big some big signs on
every overpass welcome to Houston. So and of course it
was national news that we did. And we didn't do
it for the news. We didn't go down there to
make to make the news, nor did we bring them here.
But we have some longtime fans. We have some We
love them and they still reach out. We still get
(23:48):
thank yous and cakes and Christmas cards, just because there's
nothing you can do in that kind of situation what
you did, but just to go down and give them
a astro's hug.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
That's big. It's the support of anyone.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
But yeah, that so to be clear, you had no
you had no association with Uvaldi before this happened, and
it was a reaction they, I guess your your leaders
saw what happened and decided we're going to go all
the way down there, even though.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
So I just really grappled, I Win, it's too soon,
and when can we go? And Jim was like, probaly
seems kind of complicated, and I said, no, I promise
you We're gonna go down there. Also, and the partnerships
and the friendships that we have with the HPD and
Houston Fire Department and them just coming in helping so much,
and we just sent ten buses down and brought them
(24:39):
back to town, or we sent three buses of just astros, players, coaches, families,
and we've been down multiple times. We've been into the schools,
We've gone to their new girls and Boys club that
we helped to.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You partner with Boys and Glorial Girls Club. I have
them on the show regularly again, the same concept.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
You take these youths, you put them in contact.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
With good mentors, You make sure they do their homework,
that they know how to read, and they're going to
be just fine.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And they come to a lot of games. Well yeah, yeah,
you know what, I see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
There's always in the park. It's crazy part of kind
of what they mean and what they mean to us, right.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So, well, there are logos on your website too, like
they're absolutely you're obviously it's almost like you're connected.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
If we're having clinics, if we have players out, we
bring in the Boys and Girls Club as Ronald McDonald house.
That's another one that we're always at the Ronald McDonald's house,
or they're always out at the park or at our
youth academy.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And shout out to the McDonald's owners and operators of
Houston for putting on the biggest children's festival in the world.
It happens every year downtown.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
It's one of the biggest and and it's organized and
put on by the McDonald's owners and operators and they
they grant the money they make to various charities every year.
But another example of a massive corporation that is often
in the news for doing bad things for.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Which they ought to be severely punished.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But let's remember that it's also just a community of people,
and especially if you're in a good town, then it's
much more likely that that corporation is acting well. In
your tone, that's a perfect example.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
It's a great example.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, it's just extraordinary the amount of philanthropy this town
puts out.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Houston likes to get Yep, we do. We do a lot.
It's our power, Oh it is.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It is just for the North Carolina and Florida. We
did a big hurricane relief. Cars came out and I
did it down in Sugarland and in a minute made
and we sent three eighteen wheelers worth of things to
North Carolina and Florida through the Cajun Navy. So it's
Houston shows up if you if I put out a
(26:48):
press release and say Okay, we're gonna do it, man,
we make it happen.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And we also know that they're going to show up
for us when we're in the water, and we know
how that feels.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, we really, Yeah, it's it's extraordinary. People who have
grown up in Europe just don't relate to this sort
of philanthropy. There's a can do attitude and a we're
on our own, we got to do it ourselves attitude
that happens in Texas and much of America actually, but
especially it's especially strong in Texas. And I'm telling you,
if you're a native and you haven't traveled very much,
(27:19):
you can't possibly have an appreciation of how awesome that
culture is. It really is extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Such a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I want to give a shout out to Walter Ulrich,
who is the CEO of Medical Bridges. He's the reason
we're here together. Medical Bridges is a wonderful organization that
recycles medical supplies and dialysis machines and with the help
of Texas A and M students who build them mobile
examination rooms out of containers, which are then shipped all
(27:49):
around the world. They bring help of ptomology and basic
medicines to parts of the world where people will go
without glasses for their entire lives if they don't have
this kind of Karen, that's another organization that gets some
of your money.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
More so than the money.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They absolutely do, but we have the volunteers and we
haven't talked about the volunteers go ahead. So every day,
that's when I say we are in the community. Every day,
we have an army of four thousand volunteers throw on
their ASTROS Foundation T shirts and around the community daily.
We're medical bridges three times a week, We're at Hester
(28:26):
House weekly, Sunshine Kids regularly, Houston Food Bank. And so
what happens is we accumulate where we've been out to
sixteen thousand events throughout a year with over thirty five
thousand volunteer hours. So can you imagine how much money
that saves Walter when he has this regular like almost
(28:46):
having a staff coming in three times a week to
get things ready to be sent around the world. So
all of the organizations really that is just a huge
arm of who we are. They this volunteer army, they
represent us. They're trained, they're they're at our games. They're
the same ones that give out the bibbleheads when you
(29:08):
walk in. But they are also in the community working regularly,
and that it's it's amazing to see people and that's
that's their job. That's what they do, is they volunteer
for the Houston Astros.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Well, and what better way to meet someone to make
friends if you're in town, you're a family. Yeah, well
this people don't realize that if you just you put
your finger into the gears of this machine, it'll suck
you in for the best results. What I mean is
that you can just google Astros Foundation, go to the
Astros Foundation website and sign up to volunteer, or just
(29:42):
show up at an event where there are volunteers.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
If you do, you know, if you just.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Want to take a look around and see what we do,
we're being yeah, and and really be you're impactful. They
make such an impactful change. Our difference in these organizations
where kids or hospitals. It's it's amazing to watch and
to be a part.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Of The Astros Foundation is very easy to find.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Just google it. That's how I found it, the Astros Foundation.
You can also send me an email to request any
link or any information about the.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Organizations that I have on this show.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Folks, my email address is Texan from France at gmail
dot com and you can expect to get an answer.
And I want to thank you for listening and caring
about the issues I put on this show. My name
is Laurent I am the Texan from France and this
has been Houston PA. Houston's public affairs show Houston strong,
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston's public Affairs show and iHeartMedia Broadcast.
Ourtist Lamer says that the opinions expressed on this show
do not necessarily reflect those held by this radio station,
it's management staff, for any of its advertisers. My name
is Laurent I am the Texan from France, and one
(00:26):
of the things about being French is that I did
not grow up with baseball. And so today as I
welcome the Astros Foundation, one of the preeminent nonprofit organizations
in this great city of Houston, which is rich in
philanthropy because we have all these organizations like the Astros Foundation,
I'm coming in as a layman who learned about baseball
by watching that Robert Redford movie The Natural in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Love that film.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The music is so beautiful, the soundtrack is worth listening
to alone. And I moved to the US, and I
think it took me fifteen years before I set foot
in Minute Made Park. It might have been, and I
finally saw a game between the Astros and the Cardinals,
and I was floored by how awesome the ambiance the
environment is in minim Made Park. I expected the stadium
(01:10):
to be Grandios and it is. It's a marvel of
technology and architecture. It's the people inside, the families, the kids,
the way everybody was really relaxed, really nice, even to
the Cardinal fans who lost, so I guess.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That might be one reason why everybody was happy to them.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
But all that to say that I felt a really
strong pull from the family angle of baseball, and it
was the first time and it was kind of like
an epiphany. And my guest today is Paula Harris. She
is the senior vice president of Community Affairs for the
Astros and she is also the executive director of the
Astros Foundation. If you want to follow along with us,
(01:50):
you can find the Astros Foundation. The easiest way is
just to google it Astros Foundation. You'll find it. You're
going to see a really long list of activities and
charitable events that they guide. They also make grants, and
we're going to talk all about that. I want to
point out that you'll be happy to see that they're very,
very oriented towards youth. They are leveraging the enormous power
(02:13):
that these MLB played, these baseball geniuses have. They're young, handsome, charismatic,
they're surrounded by talented people, because every athlete is a
member of a team and that's how they become great.
And that influence is used to bring in kids and
encourage them to well, you know, finish learning how to
read for the youngest ones and finish high school for
(02:34):
the oldest one. And they've got a tremendous success rate
into motivating people into doing the right thing. Paula, you've
got you're part of the Astros. The Astros Foundation is
not separate from the Astros.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
We're all one big, happy family. It's our five oh
one c. So it allows our fans and our sponsors
and partners the opportunity to give to youth baseball and
our other pillars which include childhood, cancer or military appreciation, homelessness,
(03:09):
domestic violence, and of course, as I said, youth baseball
is our big well, youth sports. We do a lot
with education as you're talking about to but this this
is the nonprofit arm that's out in the community about
every day. We're doing something.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Am I right to assume that you're primarily focused on youth,
So we are.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We have a large focus on youth and youth sports
and youth baseball. We probably have about twenty thousand kids
that we engage with every year, in some youth directly
directly because we have a academy, Astro's Youth Academy, and
so every day, seven days a week, practically, there's something
(03:51):
going on out at our Astro's Youth Academy and acres home.
So we have a nice building. We have practice going on,
we have leagues out there, we prepare kids, we have
educational programming going on. So there's always something going out
at the Astros Youth Academy.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So, for instance, the youth will go to the academy
to play baseball.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
That's the attractor, but you.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Have tutoring services and support services for them. So they
show up, they get a they get a nice end
of day meal agute as they say in French, a
snack is that one?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So so there are leagues out there, yeah, so baseball
and softball. We have about six fields out there, and
so there are teams and leagues and practice and strength.
But we also have a very nice building where we
do the classroom part or think about what else baseball entels.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How to be.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
A sports commentator, We'll have classes on that, how to
be an umpire, we have so many of our kids
that make money during the summer umpiring for little league
games because we have gotten them certified and being an up.
So outside the legal, statistic part, the community, part of
the marketing media, we have a lot going on out there.
(05:09):
Not to mention, one of our rooms in our building
is called the Conico Phillips College Readiness Room, so getting
ready for FASTVA, your college readiness, your algebra readiness. We
last week we had for middle school STEM night, and
so the kids were just working on STEM programming and
(05:30):
they may not have been there for baseball, although baseball
is going on on the outside. We'll have programming in
our building all the time. Yeah, And STEM stands for Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math. This is oversimplifying the matter, but if
you could teach every kid to learn how to read,
have self respect and be respectful and that just you know, hello, please,
(05:52):
thank you, goodbye, and then a good strong team, a
team ethic talked to them through sports. Those are not
enough basics to function well in society exactly, and we're
lacking that and enormous numbers. The reason we spend a
lot of time with our kids on the etiquette and
(06:13):
the character, yeah, is because We not only want to
make great baseball players, we want to make great citizens.
And we travel with these kids, these kid we had
six kids at the World Series there in LA two
weeks ago, right. We take these kids everywhere for competitions,
for tournaments and so because a lot of times it's
(06:36):
the first time on traveling outside of the city or
on a plane. But we want them to be prepared.
We want them to look nice, act nice, and be
prepared not only to compete you know in the on
the on the diamond or on the ball field, but
be able to compete in life.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Is it hard to teach them these things?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, I mean it just takes. You have to layer it.
You know, it's not one lesson saying yeah, go out
and be nice. You have to teach it. Win there
on the field, you have to bring them in the classroom.
You have to talk about etiquette and how to treat
people and how to treat others.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
My instinct is that the youth is we're as young people,
that's what we kind of want. We want a good structure,
we want good leaders. We're a monkey see monkey doo species,
and that's not.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
What you're seeing at home our school. Then it's almost
you can't say it's not your fault, but really you
just haven't been taught.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, well, I mean a child is pretty That's what
we talk about the innocence of children right there. There
are a product of their environment and they get dropped
into it by fate or whatever you want to call it.
But I think that that's one of the things that
we see a lot of these foundations that are tied
to sports teams, and you know, honestly, a lot of
times people just sort of brush them off as oh,
(07:50):
they're just doing.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
That to look good.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
We gave them a tax dollars too, so they could
build the stadium. They've got to do something in return.
What people don't realize is that if these these programs
are well managed, if they're successful and big, and I
would say that the size of an organization is indicative
of how successful successful it is at raising money.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And if it's successful in raising money, that means that.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It's message is successful. That means that people are into it.
These programs really work if you can put even a
mentor who's on TV, but you bring a child closer
to that mentor because now they're part of the astros foundation.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They might not meet their hero right away, and maybe
they'll get as close as watching them walk by into
the you know, onto the field or something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
People don't realize just how powerful that is and how
that will compel even a kid who has problems at home,
attitude problems, to start modulating their anger, their aggressive nature
because they want to be part of this team and
it can change their lives.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Absolutely. Our kids, I want to say, they live in
Minute May Park. They're always there.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Too, though I'm kind of I'm kind of jealous. That's
a cool place to go to work. Radios man, I
love coming.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, No, they do. They're in all the games. They're
they're before games, after games, program and they're on the field.
A lot of our kids or some of our kids
are the ball boys.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, during games.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
So they travel sometimes with the team. So they are
that's part of who they are.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
It's obvious that you're going to be enchanted by a
great baseball player if you're young. People don't always realize
is that once the organization gets going, the older peers
become mentors to the younger peers too. So you're going
they come in because of baseball, but they actually progress
(09:41):
and probably stay in the program because of the new
family that they form, these friends, and you could actually remove.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That from baseball, it would still be functional to.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Them, absolutely absolutely, and the success they see, So everybody's
not going to be a professional baseball player, although we
do have two to three hundred at any time in
college playing baseball.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
They come through our program.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Although we did have last year the first kid that
grew up since he was seven years old in the
Astros Youth Academy, went through our programming, went off to
college and it's now was our first the Astros first
round draft pick last year.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He's playing with the team. Now.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Holy, he's coming up through our through our farm league,
so he will be with us soon. He's you know,
we don't triple A. It's a process to get to
the majors. But he's in one of our minor league
teams and wow, he's gone really fast. He's already in
sugar Land, which is right before he comes up to
the Astros. So they see that success. But they also
(10:40):
see the success of kids who have just come through
the program have gone to college and come back and
volunteer and that are you know, productive citizens. So they
see that and it's so so important. Not only that
we bring in our sponsors a lot, so they get
to see they're always around professionals from Slumberge and Chevron
and Kanaco and Oxy the list goes on and on.
(11:03):
So they always see these guys and they get to
interact and gauge, and so they have this mentality of
giving back themselves, right, Yeah, and that's expected of them.
So as they, like you said, as they matriculate up,
they come back and they coach or they volunteer. They're
always part of the family, and.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
They learn how to function in this high functioning society
where people are generally polite and diplomatic with each other,
and all those things are sorely lacking from our education system.
We're not doing a very good job of teaching kids
how to regulate their emotions. I mean, only thirty percent
of third graders know how to read when they move
(11:43):
into fourth grade. Get that number in your head, people.
You take one hundred HISD kids that are graduating to
fourth grade, only thirty of them can read at a
third grade level. The others are pretty much condemned to
being at best functionally illiterate.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
For the rest of us, lives.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
The difference between being completely illiterate and functionally illiterate is
that you can read a menu.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
If you're functionally literate, you.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Can sort of get by, but you can't fill out
a complicated job application, even for a managerial position in
a restaurant. Those are restaurants are maligned, but they're wonderful
stepping stones, and becoming a manager can be a first
step at a very prosperous life. First of all, managing
(12:30):
a restaurant is a great job. It can be, but
you have to know how to read.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And so one of the things that is one of
the things that the astros we do understand and something
it's one of those things that needs all hands on desk. Yeah,
And so our part for that we partner with Oxy
and we have a literacy bus that we give out
free books all over this city year round. In partnership
with Houston Independent School District Houston Public Library. We have
a literacy bus that goes to schools, after school programming,
(12:58):
boys and girls clubs wherever it's requested. With these retired
librarians read to the kids and everybody gets free books.
We also have a partnership with Reliant Energy a summer
because what happens is kids learn August through May and
then they play games and video games for the summer.
(13:18):
And so we're back at square one, right, So we
have a summer reading that's exactly it's called the summer slides.
And so square two we have a program with reliant
energy where we have summer it's a get past the
summer slide. It's a reading program, and the amount of
(13:38):
books you read, you get gifts and prizes and parties
at your school. And of course we culminated with a
two thousand kids in the park in August celebrating summer reading.
Everybody in their family gets free tickets and they come
to the game and we honor them for their summer reading.
So really really feel well as part of the Houston
(14:01):
community and surrounding areas. It is our job to make
sure we're doing also what needs to be done to
promote the basic reading.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, and just off the top of my head, the
success rate of children who are past the third grade
who take remedial lessons to learn how to read is
sky high. Teaching how to read is something we know
how to do. You can even learn how to read
fairly easily in your eighties or nineties. It's never too late,
and it's actually fairly easy to do, especially if you
(14:31):
have some basics. You've been in the country for a
long time and you just never got around to go
getting over that hump. There's a bunch of organizations in
town that can help you do that, and you can
send me an email if you'd like some help finding them.
Texan from France at gmail dot com. Texan from France
at gmail dot com. You are listening to Houston PA
Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is Laurent and my
(14:53):
guest is here from the Astros Foundation. Paula Harris is
the senior vice president of Community Affairs for the Astros
and she is the executive director of the Astros Foundation. Paula,
you've already mentioned you are keeping an eye on veterans
affairs and you're you're doing things for our military veterans.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So we honor our military at every game, Yeah, we do,
and so we also bring them out on the field.
We honor those that participate in the different wars. But
also this week we had a big military retirement ceremony
on the field postseason doors of close, but they have
they get to come and use our facility and and
(15:35):
have celebrations, and so we're really really open to the
support we give to Combined Arms or Great Organization, Great
Organization and all of the organizations that we work with,
the Coast Guard Foundation, and we during the season we
celebrate everybody's anniversary, the Marines, the Navy, you know, and
(15:57):
the military appreciation women in the military. So you really
get a strong military feel and love for this country.
And see that baseball we present. We are I think
very farward thinking and making sure that we honor those
that have sacrificed for this country.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, and y'all have never let up.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
We went through an age when doing such things was
a little off the mainstream. People were took political sides
that had nothing to do with the soldiers and sort
of carried over their political feelings onto how they treat
the soldiers. And I've never been a big fan of that.
And because of that, I have noticed that the baseball
(16:39):
teams very often have stayed very true to their veterans.
You also work to help on the homelessness population in Houston,
which has unfortunately exploded over the past few years.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
We do, and of course we're downtown and so we
see it every day. I do too, and so Jim Crane,
our owner. About nine years ago he started a partnership
with New Hope Housing and so cool every year we
do a big Diamond Dreams Gala sponsored by Chevron, where
we give we've given to the Houston community overall, we've
(17:14):
given sixty million dollars but probably about to homeless five
six million dollars that we give to make sure that
organizations that are building homeless apartment shelters places are intact
and that support is something that we see every day
(17:35):
and we know it's it's ongoing. It's hard to win
that one, but we know that we need to continue
to bring attention to it and to bring funds to it,
and that's what we do. So we have this Diamond
Dreams Gala, which just happened here lately in November. But
it's big party on the field, thousands of people in
(17:58):
town and all of the funds and are for homelessness
and in partnership with New Hope Housing.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I have the Star of Hope on the show
regularly and they've told me several times that they get
help from the Astros Foundation do it must be grants
and also tickets for their people.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Their tickets grants. It's just the easiest and most valuable
thing you have to give away.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
As tickets, well, that is very easy and through the foundation,
I give out ninety thousand tickets a season, really ninety thousand.
So every game has groups, Boys and Girls club, youth groups,
senior groups, teacher groups, first responder groups who don't have
to pay for the tickets. They don't have to pay
for the tickets at all. So that is something we
do in combination with the MLB. And one of our
(18:43):
favorites is the Salvation Army and they they'll call and
they'll have someone that they want to honor or they
want to you know, just treat very special. And they
will roll out the red carpet for some of their
clients that probably never had a birthday or never been
to a game before, you know, that are celebrating a
(19:07):
big win. We we show them a good time over there.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I think that another elephant in the room is that
you keep mentioning these massive corporations that are your partners.
And that's another thing that I'm not fan of the
media constantly piling up on these massive corporations which are
sometimes guilty of evil things.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, but they do some good stuff too.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's they're people and they're big organizations. So and I
know this from our cluster here, the iHeart Cluster. It's
very different from them when in New York, for instance,
the way people think, the way people.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Treat each other, we're just different.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
So you can't assume that just because it's Chevron, that
it's like the Chevron in Washington or LA or you know,
they have branches.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Over here in Houston are in the community, yeah, working
our part, raising money, or that they are as part
of their the money their revenue, they are giving away, yeah,
to some really good stuff, and you have to appreciate
and with back.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Then I'm also surprised that very often I meet with people.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Who work with Schumberger or Chevron, and they're unaware of
the charitable gifts that those companies are making. They're unaware
of the opportunities that have to volunteer with the team
on other things. You know, it's I guess that you
just ignore the emails or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
But when they find out that they actually have some.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Leverage, and that's part of the conversation we're having here
is like, maybe you work for a big corporation and
you know that they do some things, maybe you have
the power to orient some of that money. But the
point being is that the power that the Astros are
harnessing here is actually the power of all the major
media and corporations in talent, and you're in a unique
position to do that.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And our brand, our brand, yeah, is a big brand,
and it's a great brand, and we're winners and.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Exactly to align your brand with ours is a you know,
it amplifies your mission. And so I talked to about
the Astros Youth Academy, but we also have ten fields
around the city that are sponsored by these same folks
that I've been calling out, our community leaders, and we
take at the price are the costs out of Little
(21:15):
League Baseball around this city. So to draw families out
to Moody Park or East End our Sunnyside, we take
care of the entire league, the uniforms, the equipment, the coaches,
and that is through our Community Leaders program, and that's
how we get to touch so many kids. They don't
have to come to the North Side. Ten fields that
(21:37):
are in Houston city parks. It's a partnership with the park.
We do the maintenance and the upkeep on all of
these baseball fields and softball fields.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think it's both great and also the right thing
to do. It just feels like it should. This is
almost secondhand. It's like, Yep, we're so successful, our brand
is so recognizable.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
We have this power. We have to use it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
We have to use it, and you have to make
sure you are making a difference right that you're really
being able to positively affect our community. Its Houston. A
great example is after the incident in Valdi.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Oh yeah, the mass shooting, the school shooting.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So we went down there and we just took over things.
We went down there in such a massive a We
take care of all their fields, built concession stands. But
a couple of months after, Jim Crane and the entire
Astro's family went down there and just did one big
love fest. It was like you were at a game.
You got all of the free stuff, you know, come
(22:36):
out to the parks and we're at the hospital, we're
at the parks, we were at the community center. The
kids that lost the families that lost their lives got
a big private reception with us with big pictures and
mentos and jerseys with their babies' names on it. So
my director of my youth academy, he says, when I
go down there, I'm the mayor because we go down
(22:58):
there now every year we take our youth academy kids
to play. The kids in Uvalde. We just have a
that is one of our community leader parks. Now we
are down there, and we brought this town to Houston
to a game. They got into the game early. We
shut down everything. The players came and talked one in
one with the families. The Houston Police Department met them
(23:20):
in Katie and shut down the freeways. The buses we
sent down.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The only time I might not complain about that brought
right to the park.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Houston Fire Department had their big some big signs on
every overpass welcome to Houston. So and of course it
was national news that we did. And we didn't do
it for the news. We didn't go down there to
make to make the news, nor did we bring them here.
But we have some longtime fans. We have some We
love them and they still reach out. We still get
(23:48):
thank yous and cakes and Christmas cards, just because there's
nothing you can do in that kind of situation what
you did, but just to go down and give them
a astro's hug.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
That's big. It's the support of anyone.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
But yeah, that so to be clear, you had no
you had no association with Uvaldi before this happened, and
it was a reaction they, I guess your your leaders
saw what happened and decided we're going to go all
the way down there, even though.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
So I just really grappled, I Win, it's too soon,
and when can we go? And Jim was like, probaly
seems kind of complicated, and I said, no, I promise
you We're gonna go down there. Also, and the partnerships
and the friendships that we have with the HPD and
Houston Fire Department and them just coming in helping so much,
and we just sent ten buses down and brought them
(24:39):
back to town, or we sent three buses of just astros, players, coaches, families,
and we've been down multiple times. We've been into the schools,
We've gone to their new girls and Boys club that
we helped to.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You partner with Boys and Glorial Girls Club. I have
them on the show regularly again, the same concept.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
You take these youths, you put them in contact.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
With good mentors, You make sure they do their homework,
that they know how to read, and they're going to
be just fine.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
And they come to a lot of games. Well yeah, yeah,
you know what, I see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
There's always in the park. It's crazy part of kind
of what they mean and what they mean to us, right.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
So, well, there are logos on your website too, like
they're absolutely you're obviously it's almost like you're connected.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
If we're having clinics, if we have players out, we
bring in the Boys and Girls Club as Ronald McDonald house.
That's another one that we're always at the Ronald McDonald's house,
or they're always out at the park or at our
youth academy.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And shout out to the McDonald's owners and operators of
Houston for putting on the biggest children's festival in the world.
It happens every year downtown.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
It's one of the biggest and and it's organized and
put on by the McDonald's owners and operators and they
they grant the money they make to various charities every year.
But another example of a massive corporation that is often
in the news for doing bad things for.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Which they ought to be severely punished.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But let's remember that it's also just a community of people,
and especially if you're in a good town, then it's
much more likely that that corporation is acting well. In
your tone, that's a perfect example.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
It's a great example.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, it's just extraordinary the amount of philanthropy this town
puts out.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Houston likes to get Yep, we do. We do a lot.
It's our power, Oh it is.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It is just for the North Carolina and Florida. We
did a big hurricane relief. Cars came out and I
did it down in Sugarland and in a minute made
and we sent three eighteen wheelers worth of things to
North Carolina and Florida through the Cajun Navy. So it's
Houston shows up if you if I put out a
(26:48):
press release and say Okay, we're gonna do it, man,
we make it happen.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And we also know that they're going to show up
for us when we're in the water, and we know
how that feels.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, we really, Yeah, it's it's extraordinary. People who have
grown up in Europe just don't relate to this sort
of philanthropy. There's a can do attitude and a we're
on our own, we got to do it ourselves attitude
that happens in Texas and much of America actually, but
especially it's especially strong in Texas. And I'm telling you,
if you're a native and you haven't traveled very much,
(27:19):
you can't possibly have an appreciation of how awesome that
culture is. It really is extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Such a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I want to give a shout out to Walter Ulrich,
who is the CEO of Medical Bridges. He's the reason
we're here together. Medical Bridges is a wonderful organization that
recycles medical supplies and dialysis machines and with the help
of Texas A and M students who build them mobile
examination rooms out of containers, which are then shipped all
(27:49):
around the world. They bring help of ptomology and basic
medicines to parts of the world where people will go
without glasses for their entire lives if they don't have
this kind of Karen, that's another organization that gets some
of your money.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
More so than the money.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
They absolutely do, but we have the volunteers and we
haven't talked about the volunteers go ahead. So every day,
that's when I say we are in the community. Every day,
we have an army of four thousand volunteers throw on
their ASTROS Foundation T shirts and around the community daily.
We're medical bridges three times a week, We're at Hester
(28:26):
House weekly, Sunshine Kids regularly, Houston Food Bank. And so
what happens is we accumulate where we've been out to
sixteen thousand events throughout a year with over thirty five
thousand volunteer hours. So can you imagine how much money
that saves Walter when he has this regular like almost
(28:46):
having a staff coming in three times a week to
get things ready to be sent around the world. So
all of the organizations really that is just a huge
arm of who we are. They this volunteer army, they
represent us. They're trained, they're they're at our games. They're
the same ones that give out the bibbleheads when you
(29:08):
walk in. But they are also in the community working regularly,
and that it's it's amazing to see people and that's
that's their job. That's what they do, is they volunteer
for the Houston Astros.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Well, and what better way to meet someone to make
friends if you're in town, you're a family. Yeah, well
this people don't realize that if you just you put
your finger into the gears of this machine, it'll suck
you in for the best results. What I mean is
that you can just google Astros Foundation, go to the
Astros Foundation website and sign up to volunteer, or just
(29:42):
show up at an event where there are volunteers.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
If you do, you know, if you just.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Want to take a look around and see what we do,
we're being yeah, and and really be you're impactful. They
make such an impactful change. Our difference in these organizations
where kids or hospitals. It's it's amazing to watch and
to be a part.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Of The Astros Foundation is very easy to find.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Just google it. That's how I found it, the Astros Foundation.
You can also send me an email to request any
link or any information about the.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Organizations that I have on this show.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Folks, my email address is Texan from France at gmail
dot com and you can expect to get an answer.
And I want to thank you for listening and caring
about the issues I put on this show. My name
is Laurent I am the Texan from France and this
has been Houston PA. Houston's public affairs show Houston strong,
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