Jeter wants the Marlins to be ‘the community’s team.’ It showed during COVID-19
It’s a typical Wednesday afternoon in South Florida. The sun is beating down with temperatures in the mid-90s and the threat of rain is on the horizon.
But the weather wasn’t deterring Raquel “Rocky” Egusquiza, Caroline O’Connor or the nearly two dozen volunteers from helping those in South Florida who needed it the most.
As the 1 p.m. start time for the food distribution arrives, hundreds of cars are lined up in two rows on Northwest Fifth Street just east of the stadium and snaking into a parking lot where eight stations with meat, dairy, fruit and bread waited for them.
And the Marlins were ready to start handing it out once again.
“We’re doing what we can to help,” said O’Connor, the Marlins’ chief operating officer.
Baseball is close to its return. The league is implementing a 60-game season that will start on July 23 or 24 with players set to begin a second round of spring training on July 1.
But in the three-plus months where the field and the stadium have been empty due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Marlins have been doing their part to support the community through their Home Plate Relief Fund.
In addition to the food distributions at Marlins Park and supplemental locations throughout South Florida that have distributed more than 110,000 meals to South Florida families, the Marlins have also...
▪ Donated 225,000 meals to student with the help of Feeding South Florida and Bridge to Hope.
▪ Given 5,563 meals to frontline workers and another 2,700 to members of the service industry
▪ Donated 10,000 face coverings in partnership with World Red Eye
▪ Sent more than 100 letters of encouragement to seniors
▪ Surprised a group of senior citizens and paid for their groceries at Sedano’s
▪ Launched Billy’s Activity Zone, which provides at-home activities for students.
“We’ve preached it since we acquired the organization. This is the community’s team,” Marlins part-owner and CEO Derek Jeter said in early April. “In times of need, we want to be there for our community. We’re trying to do that to the best of our abilities and we’ll continue to try to do that. We want to be there for our community. ... We’ll continue to do our part, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the park sooner rather than later.”
Jeter has played a hands-on role in the Marlins’ community outreach over these three months.
As Egusquiza and O’Connor recall, Jeter quickly set up a virtual meeting shortly after the season was suspended on March 12 and team employees began working from home.
They had their usual business to attend to, but with the anticipated hit to the economy and the extra work put on first responders, Jeter had two questions he wanted answered quickly before going into normal matters.
How much can they help the community and how quickly can they get started?
“He challenged us,” said Egusquiza, the Marlins Foundation’s executive director.
That led to the creation of the Marlins Foundation’s Home Plate Relief Fund on April 2, which in partnership with Feeding South Florida launched their weekly drive-thru food distributions. This came two weeks after the Marlins and the rest of MLB committed $1 million to ballpark employees who were not able to work due to the pandemic. The food at each distribution varies depending on what they are provided by their partners, which include DeliverLean and FarmShare.
“In times of need, we want to be here to support our community and ensure that we’re doing our part,” Egusquiza said. “We know that we’re going to get back to baseball, and baseball will be a unifying factor for our community, but right now, the most important thing is the health and safety of everyone in South Florida and that we’re doing our part to help support.”
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