Cape Kid: Teen Edition
I’ve found living proof (again) that it’s cool to be kind…
Meet Evan Druskin. He’s our newest Cape Kid and a 16-year-old who clearly embodies Wear the Cape’s heroic values. A soon-to-be high school junior, Evan plays baseball at Gill St. Bernards School in Gladstone, NJ, AND he’s a kind kid who helps others.
What started out as a mitzvah project became so much more. For the past decade, this everyday hero has been collecting baseball and softball equipment for underprivileged youth via the PITCH IN FOR BASEBALL organization. Evan’s good deeds are instructive: he combined his passion for helping people with his love of the game of baseball. Evan shared,
“During a project for my religious studies, I visited the [PITCH IN FOR BASEBALL] warehouse operation, and I was so impressed with everything that I saw that I wanted to stay involved beyond my project.”
Evan gathers used sports equipment through a school-wide drive he runs at the Gill St. Bernards upper, middle, and lower schools, as well as through Zoned Baseball Academy, a baseball training facility in Bridgewater, NJ.
Over the years, Evan has been one of the highest producing providers to PITCH IN FOR BASEBALL, having gathered and donated over 500 pieces of equipment. This equipment, once collected, is shipped worldwide to applicants who are in need, from the corners of America to the reaches of Africa. Evan explained that, for children living in volatile nations—including many in the Middle East—playing a sport such as baseball or softball can serve as a form of escape and as a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult situations.
When I interviewed Evan this summer, I was amazed at how focused and productive he is at a young age. While many his age do not hold regular summer jobs, we had to coordinate the interview around his busy schedule of working at Teknicks, an agency in Bayhead, NJ where he’s learning the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A quick study, Evan said he did not know much about SEO when he started out this summer but now he feels very comfortable with this burgeoning field. I love how passionate this Cape Kid becomes about everything in his life.
When I went to interview Evan, I brought my two oldest children Tommy and Samantha to help give Evan a goody bag of Cape products. And a testament to the fact that everyone—young and old—has the power to make an impact and lead by example, my kids still bring up Evan’s name and gush about his good deeds.
Evan punctuated our interview by words that should be inspiration to us all,
“I am able to change people’s lives by putting my time and energy toward giving back. I am truly helping people because I volunteer.”
(To read the “Top 10 Reasons to Encourage Your Kids to Volunteer”, according to Wear the Cape’s resident character education expert Dr. Brown, click here.)
A Cape Kid in action and a great role model, indeed! Evan, we thank you for wearing the cape!
To learn more about the PITCH IN FOR BASEBALL organization or to make a donation of your own equipment, contact Evan: evandruskin1 at aol dot com.
If you know of a young person whose heroic character shines and should be a Cape Kid—whether 2 years old or 22 years old—please send me an email: leighann at wearthecapekids dot com. We’d love to highlight his or her efforts to create a better, kinder world!
Choose kind,
Leigh Ann
To make a donation to the kidkind foundation, a registered 501 (c)(3) charity, click here, or send a check payable to the kidkind foundation to:
kidkind foundation
16 Mt Bethel Road, Suite 191
Warren, NJ 07059
