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Meet the Action Team Player
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| Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies. |
Shane Victorino did it. What about you? Get your school in on the action and join the Action Team. The Philadelphia Phillies center fielder and Action Team player recruited his alma mater, St. Anthony Junior Senior High School in Wailuku, Hawaii, to launch the Maui Action Team last fall.
Victorino is proud of St. Anthony – a private Catholic school for grades 7-12 – and rightly so. Action Team Captains at St. Anthony have kicked off their first year with two successful service projects. (Meet Action Team Captain Michela Moe and the Maui Action Team.)
Eagle Scout to Action Team Player
Victorino is an Action Team player for the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Action Team, along with Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and J.C. Romero of the Phillies. It was Rollins who first asked him to join the Action Team. It didn’t take much to enlist Victorino, a former Eagle Scout. Community service is something he believes in to the core.
“Growing up, my parents were always involved in our community. My father was on the Board of Education and today he’s on the Town Council,” Victorino explains. “At St. Anthony, service was part of my school activities. It’s in my family tradition and culture to give back.”
Direction for Life
With Victorino’s strong belief in the Action Team, he saw St. Anthony as a natural fit for the national youth volunteer program. When the Action Team began expanding beyond the first locations, which were all in Major League cities, he recommended his school start the Maui Action Team.
“Last year I went back to St. Anthony and talked to students. I encouraged them to focus and set goals – because school goes by so fast,” says Victorino. “Service can help you find direction. It can give you career ideas and opportunities you wouldn’t expect.”
Action Team Captains and Role Models
From his own experiences, Victorino knows the benefits of service – for those who are helped and for volunteers. And the personal benefits are even greater when you’re a service leader.
“I don’t want to be seen as only a baseball player,” declares Victorino. “The Action Team gives me a chance to be a role model as a volunteer. Action Team Captains are role models too. There are kids who want someone to look up to. It can be you. The Action Team gives kids a way to be out in the community and doing something productive.”
Every high school in the country can now join the Action Team. So get an Application today and get in on the action! Help launch an Action Team in your school in September 2009.