Yankees general manager Brian Cashman held forth on several topics related to the team on Thursday morning, and we’ll get to those in a moment. But it’s also worth highlighting -- in the grand scheme, far more worthy of highlighting, actually -- the reason he was in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for a media availability.
Cashman, Clay Holmes, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and assistant hitting coach Hensley Meulens hung out and played Wiffle ball, football and cornhole with members of You Gotta Believe, an organization that helps place older foster children in permanent homes. The team also presented a $10,000 donation.
The outreach, which is part of this year’s HOPE Week program, was the idea of Cashman’s ex-wife, Mary Bresnan. The stories within it are compelling, including that of Joe Toles, who spent his first 18 years in foster care. Now 63, he is the adopted father of eight, the youngest of whom is 17 years old.
Toles wanted it known that older children in foster care often slip through the cracks.
“People don't understand that you can adopt an older child,” he said. “And the other part of that is that not a lot of older kids are aware that they can be adopted and continue to look for a family.”
Per You Gotta Believe, nearly 50 percent of kids in foster care will go on to experience homelessness, and are more likely to experience unemployment, unplanned pregnancy, involvement in the legal system and issues with substance abuse.
“There's an age component where people get timed out and they haven't been placed yet,” Cashman said. “[You Gotta Believe is] a safety net to try to capture kids that are older at the very back end of their foster care programs and now they’re about to time out.
“We're lucky. We’re born lucky. But not everybody was born lucky, and You Gotta Believe is trying to accommodate and take care of people that weren't born fortunate.”
For compelling short videos of Toles and his foster kids, visit joetoles.com. For more information about You Gotta Believe, visit yougottabelieve.org.