For years, Bob Thomes has volunteered with McLeod Cooperative Power Association in coordination with Great River Energy to host a free youth baseball and softball clinic by the Minnesota Twins. But this summer, it was extra special.
Not only did his grandson participate, but he picked up a new home plate strategy.
The Twins clinic coaches “showed him a few different ways to swing other than what his dad had told him,” said Thomes, assistant member service manager at McLeod, where he has worked for 32 years. “His dad always tells him he’s got have a big kick. The coaches at the clinic told him to turn his hips and not worry about the big kick.”
Since 1999, Maple Grove-based Great River Energy has partnered with the Twins organization to enable its 26 distribution co-ops to host at least six clinics at a local ballpark at no cost each season.
As the co-ops get the word out across their rural territories and register kids, the Twins, who started these public clinics in the 1960s, hire and certify coaches to teach 6- to 12-year-olds batting, throwing and fielding.
But it goes deeper than that.
“Our clinic program is always stronger when we partner with local electric co-ops,” said Chelsey Falzone, the Twins’ manager of youth engagement. “They don’t just sponsor the program by putting their name on it, but instead they rally their entire community to make it a celebration.
“The clinics with a co-op partner always feel different and more vibrant. That spirit of showing up for kids is exactly what the Twins Community Fund is all about, and it’s why these clinics become such memorable experiences for young ballplayers.”
For participating co-ops, it’s also an opportunity to connect with members, their communities and their generation and transmission co-op.
“It’s a great way for us to partner with Great River Energy, who sponsor the Twins and allow any of their co-ops to host a clinic each year,” said Dylan Aafedt, vice president of business solutions at Lake Region Electric Cooperative. “It’s cooperation among cooperatives.”
The Pelican Rapids-based co-op hosts clinics in different parts of its service area, no matter how remote. At its recent clinic at Parkers Prairie’s high school field, about 75 kids came with gloves and ready to play.
“We’re trying to bring the local co-op to our members where they’re at,” said Aafedt. “That our Major League Baseball team is willing to send people up from roughly three hours away to coach kids in rural Minnesota…It makes kids in rural America feel seen.”
Eighty children—including one whose family drove 100 miles roundtrip—participated in the June clinic McLeod has hosted for several years at an amateur team’s diamond in Arlington, about 50 miles west of the Twins homefield in Minneapolis. The clinic was in the evening for the first time. Concession stands were open,and the kids were thrilled to be under the stadium lights with family and friends in the bleachers, said Thomes.
“We had the popcorn going and frying burgers and you got the smell of being at a ballpark, and they were putting on the show for us in the stands,” he said.
The Glencoe-based co-op, which hung a banner at the ballpark, gave each young slugger a baseball with the McLeod logo.
“Great River Energy and our member cooperatives believe in more than powering homes and businesses, but in opportunity, growth and possibility,” said Daniel Becchetti, the G&T’s manager of communications and marketing. “Providing a chance for youth to enjoy a fun day at their local ballfield with guidance from the Minnesota Twins is just one way that electric cooperatives show concern for community.”
Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.