The Brooklyn Cyclones will step up to the plate this month against the Staten Island Yankees, and all for a good cause.
A portion of ticket sales for the minor league baseball game, which will take place at Keyspan Park on Thursday, July 23 at 7 p.m., will be donated to the Futures in Education Foundation to fund need-based scholarships for Catholic elementary school students in Queens and Brooklyn.
The non-profit Futures in Education Foundation provides between $500 and $1,400 in yearly tuition assistance to families whose average household income is approximately $26,852.
“The funding helps children to remain in our school,” said Theresa Anderson, the principal of St. Rose of Lima in Rockaway Beach. “It has made a difference in the lives of our parents.”
More than 30 students from St. Rose of Lima will receive scholarship assistance for the next school year from the Futures in Education Foundation. Anderson, who is a season ticket holder for the Brooklyn Cyclones, said that she, along with many other Catholic elementary school principals, plans to attend the event.
The Futures in Education Foundation has also reached out to families devastated by tragedy.
“This organization has helped our family both financially and emotionally,” said Tracey Perri, whose two children, Angelo and Lianna, attend St. Luke’s School in Whitestone.
After Perri’s husband James passed away from cancer in 2006, she turned to the Futures in Education Foundation to assist with the cost of her children’s tuition.
“We’ve been blessed to receive support from the Futures in Education Foundation,” said Perri. “They [the children] wouldn’t have been able to continue with a Catholic education and receive the foundation of their faith, which has helped to guide them daily and to receive their sacraments.”
Although the proceeds from the upcoming Brooklyn Cyclones game will help defray the $3,500 average cost of a parochial elementary school education, the event will primarily serve to inform the public about the Futures in Education Foundation’s mission to “support the neediest of students and schools.”
“Events like these are more like friend-raisers than fundraisers,” said Thomas Flood, the president of the organization. “It is more of an opportunity to tell our story to a new audience.”
Tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones game fundraiser event are available at www.brooklyncyclones.com. Enter the promotional code “FUTURES” under the Ticket Discounts & Specials tab to purchase tickets.
