Baseball seniors from Staten Island’s public and private schools will get one last chance to showcase their talent Friday night in the 8th annual Annual High School Baseball Senior Game and Autism Awareness Fundraiser at the College of Staten Island.
The event has raised more than $100,000 since its inception and monies raised go towards Autism awareness and research.
The event is sponsored by JAG-ONE Physical Therapy. JAG merged with the event’s previous sponsor, One-On-One Physical Therapy, last year.
“It’s nice to see the owners of JAG wanting to carry on the tradition of this event,” said Joe Saraceno, the Chief Operating Officer of JAG-ONE. Saraceno is also the president of the One-On-One Charitable Foundation, which oversees the Autism Awareness Game. “It shows that we have a vested interest in the community.”
The game is supported by Met Foods, another title sponsor.
For the third straight year, the game will take place at CSI's Willowbrook campus.
Tickets are free to the event with gates opening at 6 p.m. Once there, spectators can take part in dozens of raffles, a 50/50, a food truck, and concessions, all in the name of Autism Awareness. The Senior Game will begin around 7 p.m.
“We have a carnival setting that will run parallel to the game where our staff will work closely with children of special needs,” said Saraceno. “There will be face-painting, clowns and music and things like that.”
The Staten Island Autism Warriors will also be involved in the event. The Warriors have been been providing autism-friendly events to the borough since 2014.
“The Autism Warriors do great work for the people of Staten lsland,” said Saraceno.
Other sponsors include the Teddy Atlas Foundation, Friends of Bill Micciuli, Assemblyman Michael Cusick, Staten Island University Hospital, Met Foods, the O’Friel Family, AVT Engineering, Louis L. Buttermark & Sons, Inc - Plumbing & Heating, Island Auto Group, Because We Can LLC, 317 Construction, Donato Inc. Plumbing & Heating, CB Contracting Corp, Keheller Financial Advisors, ADCO Electricsal Corporation, Ferrantino Fuel, Denino’s, Northwell, Onyx Equities, Northeast Mattress Monello Enterprises, Hadrian Management, The DeSena Family and Grace of NY.
SILive.com is a sponsor as well.
Teams and companies who provided for raffles were the New York Red Bulls, NJ Devils, Codella Brazilian Jiu JItsu, Casale Jewelers and Entercom Radio.