The primary recipient of the Whitecaps' charitable efforts is the Whitecaps/ Inner City Youth Baseball / Softball Program. The Whitecaps have partnered with the Downtown YMCA; Varnum Attorney's at Law ; Fifth Third Bank; and Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Department to bring this program to the youth of Grand Rapids. Since 1995 more than 10,000 children have had the opportunity to participate in organized baseball.
The Inner City Youth Baseball Program is designed to teach the fundamentals of baseball, sportsmanship, and the positive values of respect, responsibility, honesty and caring. Hundreds of volunteers serve as coaches, assistant coaches, drivers and scorekeepers. Each volunteer has given more than 100 hours of time to help make a difference in the lives of inner city children.
Six neighborhood parks (Martin Luther King, Garfield, Sheldon, Aberdeen, Richmond and Plaster Creek ) have become the gathering places for the families and neighbors of the baseball players.
Funding for the program is provided in large part by the Whitecaps' annual Winter Baseball Banquet, which has raised more than $350,000 through live and silent auctions.
Another channel of fundraising for Inner City Youth Baseball is a season ticket buy-back program called CapsBuy, in which Whitecaps season ticket holders can release their tickets for future games in which they will not be able to attend. The Whitecaps in turn re-sell the tickets to the public, crediting the season ticket holder with half of the value of the ticket and donating the remaining half of the ticket value to the Inner City Youth Baseball and Softball Program.
Still another fundraiser for the program is the sale of Whitecaps game-used cracked bats in the Fifth Third Ballpark Souvenir Shop, which has raised more than $18,000 in the past eight seasons.
