The perks of being a nonprofit organization are usually more altruistic than anything else, but every now and then there are some little added bonus exceptions. For example, last year I was able to write a grant for The EMpact One Foundation with the St. Louis Cardinals charitable giving foundation known as Cardinals Care that resulted in our super fun mini-getaway this week to St. Louis to catch the Cardinals play the Kansas City Royals.
Since our state doesn’t have a professional baseball team at this point we have our pick of pretty much any team to throw our support. But, if you are choosing based on proximity you pretty much have the St. Louis Cardinals, the Texas Rangers, or the Atlanta Braves…maybe the Houston Astros or the Kansas City Royals if you want to throw a wider net.
For organizational purposes, based on our geographical location, Saline County falls right on the line for both the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals if you are a nonprofit looking to write a grant. If you don’t know the in’s and out’s of nonprofit grant writing I won’t bore you with the details, but organizations (specifically sports organizations) generally like to serve folks within their geographical area so that the donated funds benefit demographics close to them. I totally get it…that’s kind of the way we work too. Donors to your organization want their money to benefit people in their area. P.S. EMpact has some amazing donors that we are so grateful for (yes…that’s a shameless plug, but genuine gratitude).
But, I digress. Last year The EMpact One Foundation submitted requests to both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers and we were fortunate enough to receive funding from the Cardinals Care organization. They granted us $600.00 to purchase brand new baseballs and softballs for local leagues in our community and we payed it forward to benefit the Harmony Grove Future Cardinals Organization and our Mobile Sports Locker Program. We have put those funds to great use!
Oliver and I presenting baseballs and softballs to the Harmony Grove Future Cardinals organization.
As amazing as that opportunity was I was even more excited when I got an email from the Cardinals Cares organization inviting us to come to St. Louis for a game with tickets on the house! So, we took a group of 20 to St. Louis and did just that. The Cardinals may have dropped both games of the double header (they were supposed to play Wednesday and Thursday night but with the crazy weather the games were moved to a double header on Thursday) but the experience was still amazing and we can’t wait to go back.
With that being said, this weeks article is going to be a quick highlight recap of our mini vacay. What does that have to do with sports you might say? Well, thanks for asking! Here’s what I will tell you. Plan a trip to go see the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. It’s absolutely worth the 5 hour drive to watch a game in a major league stadium and do all the things that come with this experience. Book the hotel, but the tickets, do all the tourist-ie things, then come back and thank me later.
Especially if you have young kids. This was Oliver’s first Major League Baseball game and he was amazed with every single thing that happened. It was a beautiful night, we ate overpriced food, bought souvenirs, and made core memories he will have for a lifetime.
The Trip…
We were in town from late Tuesday night through about 4:00 on Thursday. I have always been a “sleep cheap” kinda gal so we don’t stay in bougie hotels unless it’s something special. With that in mind I found a super clean and reasonable hotel in Granite City, Illinois that suited us just fine. It took us about 20 minutes to get anywhere we wanted to go and saved me about $80-$100 per night.
However, my reputation as the frugal hotelier proceeded me with my family because as we pulled up to our hotel, after dark, on Tuesday night the first thing my carload noted with the facility across the street that they immediately decided was a prison and that’s why our hotel was so cheap. Daylight showed us (what I tried to tell them anyway) that it was not a prison, but, in fact, an Amazon distribution center…thank you very much.
Our schedule had us somewhat limited and traveling with a 5 year old definitely determined a lot of our planning but we made the most of every minute of our journey. We got up mid morning Thursday and decided to spend the majority of our free time at the City Museum of St. Louis. I can’t say enough amazing things about this museum…especially for toddler aged kids and older. Even as a 40-ish-something out of shape woman I had a ball and I was worn out. We climbed, crawled, slid, crafted, and explored for about 5 hours which felt like 5 years and could have continued on that long if we’d had the time. If you have a big crew the $20 per person admission could add up but we also had a huge pizza lunch on site that filled us up with leftovers for about $25 so that definitely helped.
Here’s a sneak peek of our foolishness…
Once we were completely worn out we headed home to change for the baseball game and get about 42 seconds of rest before we got back on the road. As I said before, despite the loss, the Cardinals did not disappoint. We had an incredible time and our seats were awesome. The storm blew through and gave us a night of cooler temperatures and we could not have asked for a better experience.
Our group sat in Section 133 right down the first base line and had an incredible view of the field. We cheered our hearts out and my little guy was even featured on the Jumbotron…even though we were so excited we didn’t get a picture.
Pretty much everything about Busch Stadium is first rate, from Baseball Village to the Stadium itself you can’t go wrong.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to St. Louis if we didn’t take our obligatory trip to the top of the Gateway Arch. All joking aside, I love to visit the Arch and have done so every time I have trekked to St. Louis. They do a phenomenal job and I learn something new each time I go. This trip was especially educational since we had two travelers of very different ages making their maiden journeys in the little egg cars to the summit. Definitely a “must do” for travelers.
After our ride in the arch, lunch at the cafe, and loading up on a final round of souvenirs we pinned back our ears and headed for home. 5 hours in the car seems like an eternity after two full days of fun but in the grand scheme of things it’s totally worth it. If you are short on time but want to plan a sporting getaway for your crew I can’t recommend this journey more.
A special thank you to the St. Louis Cardinals Organization and the Cardinals Care crew for showing us a great time. As we left the stadium Oliver looked up at me and asked “can we come back a-morrow, please” so I guess the Cardinals have a new fan for life! These are some of the greatest memories you can build with your littles, take the vacation time and unplug, and again…you can thank me later!
Until next week…that’s how the ball bounces!
Read more from How the Ball Bounces with Bekka in the archives at www.mysaline.com/bounces.
About the author: Bekka Wilkerson is a lifelong lover of all things sports. Raised in a super athletic household it was no surprise when she too began to love sports at a young age. It seems like from the time she could walk she had a softball bat in her hands, but her true athletic passion came from all things Basketball. That love served her well as a Bryant High School Lady Hornet and ultimately earned her a full scholarship to play at the University of Central Arkansas – among many other adventures.
These days Bekka can be found running around Saline County with her husband, Speedy, or chasing one of her grandsons. She is also the Executive Director of The EMpact One Foundation, a Saline County Nonprofit Organization that helps young people stay connected to extracurricular activities through tuition assistance and equipment provisions.
Reach out to Bekka with questions and/or ideas about things you want to see in this column at [email protected] and learn more about The EMpact One Foundation at www.empactone.org.