Promoting a Lifetime of Activity for Youth

Cleveland, OH - The Cleveland Indians and Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS) today hosted a national "PLAY" campaign event at Progressive Field. Indians player Jamey Carroll, Head Athletic Trainer Lonnie Soloff and his athletic training staff led 85 local children (ages 8 - 13) through a series of agility training and injury prevention exercises, strength and conditioning workouts and a Ripken Quickball demonstration to promote living healthy/active lifestyles. In addition, Don Hooton, President and Founder of the Taylor Hooton Foundation conducted a Hoots Chalk Talk presentation, a program developed by Hooton to provide kids with a combination of information about how they can improve their performance, build strength and enhance their conditioning the right way - without having to cheat, use drugs and put their lives and health at risk.

PLAY, which stands for Promoting a Lifetime of Activity for Youth, is a public awareness campaign of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS), in conjunction with the Taylor Hooton Foundation and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. The PLAY Campaign promotes healthy living and decision making among children in America. Each young person in attendance today received a PLAY "Pledge Card" which he or she signed along with Carroll stating they will remain active, make healthy decisions and avoid performance enhancing drugs.

"We were happy to host the PLAY Campaign event here at Progressive Field with the help of the Taylor Hooton Foundation and Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation," said Soloff. "By encouraging young people to be active at an early age and educating them about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs in this way, we hope leads to them adopting healthy lifestyles that will continue into adulthood. Through the PLAY Campaign we will continue to raise awareness for these two very important causes while giving kids memorable experiences."

For the first time ever the 2008 PLAY Campaign will be conducting events with all 30 MLB clubs inside their ballparks from June through September. In each MLB city approximately 75 - 200 local children between the ages of 8 to 18 will receive the opportunity to take part in PLAY, getting hands-on instruction and education from the team's athletic training staff, Don Hooton and players from each team. Baseball's all-time "Iron Man" and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cal Ripken, Jr. has taped a national Public Service Announcement (PSA) on behalf of PLAY which will run inside each MLB ballpark throughout the summer.

"Teaming up with PBATS and their PLAY Campaign is a great way for us to educate children in each Major League Baseball city about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs," said Hooton. "These events give kids the chance to hear about my experiences, and from big league players like Jamey Carroll that abusing anabolic steroids is wrong, harmful to your body and mind, and not necessary in order to become a great athlete. Through PLAY and with the support of PBATS, The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation and Major League Baseball we hope to impact thousands of kids this summer in a unique way."

The PLAY program was created in 2004 to raise awareness about children's health issues because obesity is a major concern in the United States. Since 2004, the PLAY Campaign has conducted 35 events inside 20 different MLB ballparks. The PLAY Campaign has reached thousands of children with positive messages about making healthy decisions and living a more active and healthy lifestyle.

The Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS) serves as an educational resource for all Major League and Minor League Baseball athletic trainers. PBATS serves its members by providing for the continued education of the athletic trainer as it relates to the profession, helping improve his/her understanding of sports medicine so as to better promote the health of his constituency -- professional baseball players. PBATS also serves as a resource to educate those outside the professional baseball athletic trainer community about the profession and about the athletic trainer's integral position within the sports medicine team.

The Taylor Hooton Foundation was formed in 2004 in memory of Taylor E. Hooton, a 17-year old high school athlete from Plano, TX. Taylor took his own life as a result of the abuse of anabolic steroids. This non-profit foundation was founded by the parents, family and friends of Taylor after his death when the founders became aware of the magnitude of a growing problem among high school athletes across the country - the illegal use and abuse of anabolic steroids as a performance enhancement drug. They discovered that this is a serious problem among young athletes; and that young people and their parents are generally ignorant of the real dangers of this powerful drug. The Taylor Hooton Foundation for Fighting Steroid Abuse was founded to attack the general wide-spread ignorance of anabolic steroid use; and to educate the public to its potential as a powerful killer drug.

The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, founded in 2001 by members of the Ripken family in memory of their patriarch Cal, Sr. It works to create baseball and softball programs and facilities that positively impact disadvantaged youth by combining the principles represented by the Ripken name, the power of Cal, Jr. as a modern day hero and role model, and the universal appeal of baseball. It strives to provide once-in-a-lifetime experiences that use the magic of the big leagues to inspire kids to be the best that they can be…to dream a dream that someday they can achieve great things.