Over the course of six home games this season, Citi Field and the Jackie Robinson Foundation treated thousands of kids to a Mets game and the opportunity to take a private tour of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. New York Family Sports got to tag along with Jackie Robinson Scholar, Jason Haas, and wide-eyed kids from the Queens Community House on August 24th when the Mets hosted the Phillies for the season’s final Citi Field Kids Day.
Upon entering the stadium, every lucky kid received a special edition Citi Field Kids Day t-shirt and breakfast as they awaited their tour through the immaculate new rotunda. It was only fitting that the tours were led by Jackie Robinson Scholars who guided the groups of kids on a journey through the nine Robinson principles. Former scholarship winner Jason Haas encouraged our group to listen to Jackie’s story and strive to live by these principles in order to achieve their goals. 
Kids from Brooklyn’s Center for Family Life and the Queens Community House -just to name a few in attendance- learned that hard work can help accomplish anything. “These kids need to know that college is possible, their dreams are possible” said Jason (last name to remain anonymous), a director of the Queens Community House youth program. With the help of United Housing, Citi Field and the Jackie Robinson Foundation were successful in creating just the right atmosphere for youth awareness and a fun summer day of Mets baseball.
Before the game, kids got to meet Mets bench coach Sammy Alomar Sr.
as he emphasized to them the importance of hard work and family. The pre-game program was hosted by SNY anchor Michelle Yu, and included presentations by Steve Silverman, director of Communications for Citi, and “This Week in Baseball” producer Matt Anderson.The most exciting part of the program was the trivia contest from which the winner was given the task of turning in the line-up card to the opposing team before the game. Caesar, from Queens Community House, was most certainly the crowd favorite as he answered each Mets trivia question posed to him correctly. After his trip down to the field, we caught up with the day’s MVP and asked him what he thought of his experience. “It was cool to hear people cheer for me. I’ve been to baseball games before, but this was totally different today.” 
While the Mets might have fallen a little short that day of beating their division rivals, hundreds of kids considered themselves winners to have been part of the season’s final Citi Field Kids Day.
www.jackierobinson.org
www.mets.com
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zhangtao
