PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Back in 2012, the West Philly-based Philadelphia Adult League Softball was just a Tuesday night adult softball league founded by some friends that loved the game. Twelve years later, they run leagues several nights a week and maintain a nonprofit arm dedicated to taking the game global.
“We started with just eight teams on Tuesday night, and we’ve grown to now we have four days and nights that we do it and approximately 37 teams,” said co-founder Steve O’Connor.
In 12 years, Steve and Kelly O’Connor have grown PALS into not just a fun adult league but also one that is dedicated to young people in the communities they serve.
“Softball and baseball are really the tool for a broader youth development program,” said Kelly.
They work in their West Philadelphia community, and more recently founded a philanthropic arm called Change Up Sports, which strikes more at the heart of the O’Connors’ ambitions.
“Softball and baseball is amazing. It’s great and it encourages teamwork. It encourages perseverance. It gets kids being active, having fun, trying new things. But really, we also view it as a tool to connect kids with other youth development initiatives,” said Kelly.
A group of 14 volunteers from the league has raised more than $25,000 for an outreach trip this summer to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where a group of 37 young women will learn softball and receive a host of resources to help with education, personal health care and overall well being.
“It’s not everyday that you get presented with the opportunity to travel across the world and give back,” said Tabatha Lopez, a volunteer, “and I think it’s pretty cool that PALS allows us to do that, and gives us that opportunity, so I didn’t want to pass it up who has played with PALS for three years.”
Lopez has played with PALS for three years.
“I know how it made me feel growing up and the person it shaped me to be, so I want to show other people that.”