ANNAPOLIS, Md., Oct. 9, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Bruce Adams of Bethesda, Maryland is being honored selected
by AARP Maryland with the 2024 AARP Andrus Award for Community
Service, the Association's most prestigious and visible state
volunteer award for community service.
Named for AARP's founder, Ethel Percy
Andrus, the award recognizes an outstanding leader whose
deep commitment to volunteerism and legacy of accomplishments leave
a deep and meaningful impact in the community, while inspiring
others to do the same.
For decades, Adams championed community service, mentorship, and
youth development in the Baltimore-Washington region. In 1998, he
co-founded the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club to create Shirley
Povich Field, home of the Bethesda Big Train, and raise funds to
improve youth baseball fields in underserved communities.
The Bethesda Big Train, an amateur summer baseball team Adams
helped establish, has become a vital part of the area, providing
college players the chance to develop their skills and gain
professional exposure. The team plays in the Cal Ripken Sr.
Collegiate Baseball League, which Adams founded in 2005. Since
then, league alumni have been drafted nearly 400 times, including
the Toronto Blue Jay's Brett Cecil,
who was the first Ripken alum to play in the Major League All-Star
Game. Proceeds from Big Train games support local youth fields, and
the team is heavily involved in charitable efforts, including the
Roberto Clemente Day of Service in support of the Manna Food
Center.
Earlier, Adams founded the Lazarus Leadership Program in 1996,
which pairs teenagers with mentors to lead community service
projects, from hunger relief to tutoring. This initiative has
inspired high school students to become active community
leaders.
"Bruce is inexhaustible, even-keeled and is not afraid to ask
any group or individual to support his community building efforts,"
said longtime volunteer Molly Peter
in her letter nominating Adams for the Andrus Award. "His decency
and hard work attract people who know their hours and dollars will
be put to good use. What others dream about, Bruce
accomplishes."
"The Andrus award symbolizes that we can all work together for
positive social change," says AARP State President David Conway. "AARP has long valued the spirit
of community service and the important contributions volunteers
make to their communities, neighbors, and the programs they serve.
As our founder, Ethel Percy Andrus
said, 'The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is
only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.'"
The Andrus award will be formally presented to Adams at an
11:00 a.m. ceremony on October 9 at Kurtz's Beach in Pasadena, MD.
Recipients across the nation were chosen for their ability to
enhance the lives of AARP members and prospective members, improve
the community in or for which the work was performed, and inspire
others to volunteer.
ABOUT AARP
AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live
as they age. With a nationwide presence, AARP strengthens
communities and advocates for what matters most to the more than
100 million Americans 50-plus and their families: health and
financial security, and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces
the nation's largest-circulation publications: AARP The
Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit
www.aarp.org/about-aarp/, www.aarp.org/español or follow @AARP,
@AARPenEspañol and @AARPadvocates on social media.
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SOURCE AARP Maryland
