(EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was published in Christiana De Niola’s MARLINS BEAT column.)
MIAMI, Florida, August 20, 2023 — In 2020, Chisholm became the eighth person from his country to reach the big leagues and became the first All-Star in ’22. He is the face of MLB The Show 23. His three-run homer in Friday’s win over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium gave him 46 career long balls, surpassing pioneer Andre Rodgers for most by a Bahamian.
Now, Chisholm wants to do his part to pay it forward for the next generations of ballplayers. On Friday, he announced the creation of the Jazz Chisholm Foundation, something that has been in the works since 2021.
The mission of the Jazz Chisholm Foundation is to provide meaningful opportunities and to foster the well-being of young athletes and their families from high-need communities in Florida and the Bahamas. The focus is to provide equipment and resources to youth baseball and softball leagues, incorporate financial literacy education into various programming activities and support mission-aligned nonprofit organizations.
“I always wanted to give back and to make it easier for the kids to make it where I am,” Chisholm said, citing Snoop Dogg’s Snoop Youth Football League. “If you realize how many kids get drafted alone from his Peewee League, that means he has an effect in some way, because it’s Snoop Dogg and people respect him, and I want that to happen in the Bahamas. I know my name gets used a lot in the Bahamas, especially for the sport of baseball. I don’t want the Jazz Chisholm Foundation to just be baseball alone. We’re going to start with baseball, but we’re going to get in the works with a couple of the NBA guys, a couple of the football guys, and make this a whole big together thing.”
The foundation’s launch event will be a charity fashion show in Brickell on Aug. 28, and the Jazz Chisholm Foundation Little League will begin in his hometown of Nassau, Bahamas, this fall. The league will recruit 200 boys and girls to be a part of the inaugural team, then provide them with a uniform, cleats, gloves and use of other team equipment at no cost. The league will participate in a series of games around the island.
The hope is to expand the foundation’s reach to summer ball and AAU basketball.
“It’s going to start in Nassau, but we’re going to try and move it to where we have an academy and have kids,” Chisholm said. “I feel like the little league will have to be in Nassau because the younger kids are younger. They’re going to be in the one where their parents are.”
This isn’t Chisholm’s first foray into philanthropic work. He actively participated in the Marlins’ relief efforts following Hurricane Dorian in 2019 before making his MLB debut. He also regularly returns to Nassau to host youth baseball clinics or help out his mentor Geron Sands at the International Elite Sports Academy. A fan favorite, Chisholm regularly gives away his equipment and signs for supporters at the ballpark.
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