The Sandlot Initiative has been a work in progress for four years, but the seed was planted even earlier. It was while watching my younger son play baseball in a 2011 all star game that the initial concept was conceived. Playing a team from the inner city of Charleston, my son’s team was winning 15-1 after two innings and yet his coach was still playing aggressively, stealing bases any chance he could. Meanwhile, the inner city team was under-coached, over-matched, and the dejection on the children’s faces has stayed with me to this day. At that moment, I swore that one day I would make sure that no team was ever in that same position again. The idea stayed with me, but never seemed to materialize…that is, until the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia. After the riots, I woke up and asked: what could one person do to help stop the culture shift that seemed to be sweeping our nation toward a massive divide? Then it hit me. Baseball. Place two children on a field, each from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different races — different everything. At that moment, those two children see nothing but a teammate, a friend, a double play combo. With this idea, THE SANDLOT INITIATIVE was born.