ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The ace of the St. Louis Cardinals is starting to make a big name for himself in the community with his actions outside of Busch Stadium. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis (BGCSTL) kids and teens received a surprise delivery from African American owned local bookstore, EyeSeeMe, courtesy of pitcher Jack Flaherty.
Flaherty helped send boxes full of thousands of books to encourage and continue to foster a love and passion for reading.
“The city of St. Louis has embraced me from the beginning of my time as a professional baseball player. We couldn’t think of a better way to give directly back to the community by supporting a local, Black owned business with the EyeSeeMe Bookstore and simultaneously donating them all to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis. I hope these stories and adventures will inspire the next generation as reading held such an important part of my development. I am excited to work with both organizations in the future and it’s an honor to support them all today,” Jack Flaherty said of the partnership.
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BGCSTL shared a photo of some kids with the new books:
Flaherty, 25, is in his fifth season with the Cardinals and is the teams' No. 1 starter for a second year in a row. He's 1-0 so far this season.
He was an avid reader growing up and chose a bunch of books that were some of his personal favorites as a kid such as the Magic Tree House series and Mike Lupica sports stories. Jack is passionate about supporting Black owned businesses and created this moment to do just that by purchasing the books from EyeSeeMe, while directly giving back to the local community by donating them to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis.
Flaherty has previously donated face mask for kids and gave a $5,000 gift to BGCSTL through his partnership with BodyArmor.
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