West Broward Fundraiser Benefits Breast Cancer Awareness

West Broward manager Sergio Ambros is among the high school coaches who believe players need to be involved in their community and work just as hard to be successful off the field as they do on it.

One of the off-field projects the Bobcats became involved with this year is supporting breast cancer awareness. Why not host a fundraiser for the cause, Ambros thought. With support from Onel Garcia and Jorge Miranda — his peers at Somerset Academy and Coral Glades — that idea gave birth to an event that far exceeded Ambros’ expectations.

Players, parents, coaches and members of the community from the three schools came together Nov. 3 at West Broward High School and raised $3,400 for the cause.

All of the money raised was donated to the Memorial Hospital Breast Cancer Fund. The Bobcats sold T-shirts, specially made baseball roses, concessions, souvenirs, baseball merchandise and pink bracelets.

“We decide to do it for a local fund as opposed to a national fund where it might not have been distributed in the South Florida area,” Ambros said.

The event, which highlighted local breast cancer survivors, featured two varsity games and a junior varsity game with first pitches throw by a male breast cancer survivor in the first game and a breast cancer survivor near and dear to the members of the West Broward team, the grandmother of Codey and Cole Williams, in the second game. Broward County School Board Superintendent Robert Runcie tossed the first pitch in the third game. School Board member Patricia Good also was there to support the event.

“It was nice to raise money for something for my family because my grandmother survived it,” Codey Williams said. “I like giving back. It’s cool we can do this.”

West Broward player Danny Pardo said the team worked hard to get ready for the event, from prepping the field with breast cancer ribbons to painting the bases pink and getting the food and decorations.

“I think it really paid off. It was nice being able to raise money going to a cause that not only will help us but other people around the world who have also lost loved ones,” Pardo said. “Everybody, our parents, the school and everyone around, they just do so much for us with donating and helping us run our program that it’s important for us to be able to go out and give back to them because sometimes you take some things for granted that it’s nice to put it in perspective and realize how lucky you are.”

Ambros said he was ecstatic the event raised so much money.

“I thought if we can raise $100 or $200, that would be great, and it just carried on and got bigger and we realized it was affecting so many people that it became a huge event and one we look to carry on,” Ambros said.

The event originally was scheduled for Oct. 27, but Hurricane Sandy’s passage past Florida postponed the event to the following weekend. That wasn’t a bad thing because Ambros believes it’s a cause that needs to be spotlighted not only for one month of the year. He said the team plans to host the event the first weekend in November from now on to highlight that fact.

“It should be something we think about year-round,” Ambros said.

Ambros said he was proud of his players for giving their time all day to make the event a success.

“I think they really bought into it, and it was amazing they went out of there way to be there instead of going to eat lunch,” Ambros said. “They were there and donated to the cause. You knew you stuck a nerve.”

Participating in events such as this strengthens the bonds among the players, Ambros said. It’s not the first project West Broward has been involved with this year. The team delivered Halloween goodies to patients at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and helped show members of the Pembroke Pines Miracle League how to play the game. The Miracle League is a nationwide program founded in 1998 that allows children with disabilities to play baseball. Also, the team is planning more community-based projects, including a toy drive this holiday season.

“I think it’s very important that we take it beyond baseball and help other people, not just play a sport and have fun but do something for the community,” West Broward player Corey Murphy said.

Ambros said he was happy to get support from Garcia and Miranda as well as their teams.

“Both of them are really good friends, so it was a natural fit to invite them,” Ambros said. “I know Coral Glades made a donation from the T-shirts they sold, so we were grateful for that. They’re outstanding guys with good morals who are looking to do the right thing. It’s more than baseball, and they realize that.”

Miranda recently told High School Baseball Network that when Ambros asked him if he wanted to be involved in the fundraiser, he couldn’t wait to do so.

“He asked me to be part of it, and I said without a doubt, absolutely, yes,” Miranda said. “It’s good for them. There’s a lot of teams out there doing stuff in the community. We like that, and we want to be part of that. Part of my job and that of my coaching staff is that we help them become future professionals at whatever they chose to do. Some of them might go on to play college baseball. Some of them might not, but they’ll be productive citizens. And that’s one thing that we are very proud of here at Coral Glades. We try to do it the right way.”

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