NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition, an award-winning monthly publication and Web site for high school students, has partnered with the Major League Baseball Players Trust (MLBPT) to support its landmark community service program for high school students.
This dynamic program "Pitch In, Help Out, Volunteer!" is a service-learning initiative that enhances the traditional high-school curriculum by focusing on key issues that challenge society, while motivating students to get involved and volunteer in their communities.
The program features special sections in The Classroom Edition with reprinted articles from The Wall Street Journal on key societal issues like child poverty and post-Katrina rebuilding. These sections showcase examples of how teens and Major League players have volunteered to combat these problems, and how student-readers can do the same in their local areas. An accompanying service-learning feature in the Classroom Edition Teacher Guide helps teachers incorporate this content into their curriculum through thoughtful discussions and skill-building activities.
"The Players Trust puts a large emphasis on community outreach programs that are committed to helping our society," said Mark Loretta, Trustee of the Players Trust and Houston Astros infielder. "By partnering with The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition, we are able to reach more young students than ever before and get them actively involved in their communities."
"Major Leaguers worked with Volunteers of America to create the Action Team youth volunteer program, which inspires and trains the next generation of community volunteers," added Tony Clark, Trustee of the Players Trust and Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman. "The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition takes the Action Team into high school classrooms across the United States, delivering an important message to students: If we care, act, and inspire -- we can change the world."
The underwriter of this outreach effort is the Players Trust, a charitable foundation formed by Major League baseball players in 1996, that initiates broad-based programs such as the above mentioned Action Team. Through the Action Team, high school students engage in volunteer activities and spread the players' message about the importance of community service to other teens in their areas.
"This campaign extends The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition's traditional charge of teaching about financial literacy and current events by providing students with the ability to take action and make a difference in their communities," said Mark Campbell, director of educational marketing and sales for The Wall Street Journal. "The Classroom Edition is a premier source of news for classrooms around the nation, and the message the Players Trust wants to convey to students fits perfectly with our editorial mission of increasing teens' awareness of the world around them."
For more information, please visit wsjclassroom.com or www.mlbplayers.com/actionteam.
About The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition
The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition (www.wsjclassroom.com) is an award-winning educational program developed by the publishers of the world's leading business newspaper, and devoted to preparing young people for the decisions that will shape their future. The program comprises a full-color monthly newspaper that incorporates Wall Street Journal articles of particular interest to teenagers, as well as curriculum materials to help educators integrate news from the business world into their lessons. The advertiser-supported monthly newspaper reaches some 700,000 students in nearly 5,000 high-school business, economics and civics classes nationwide. The Classroom Edition program has been consistently recognized by the educational publishing community for excellence in editorial content and design and illustration, earning 21 Distinguished Achievement Awards from the Association Educational Publishers since its inception in 1991. In 2006, it was named the AEP's young-adult Periodical of the Year.
The Wall Street Journal "Classroom Edition" logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3379
About the Major League Baseball Players Trust
In 1996 the members of the Major League Baseball Players Association created the Players Trust, a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation. The Players Trust exists to help active Major League baseball players provide the resources of caring to help those less fortunate by volunteering in support of causes close to their hearts and encouraging others to do the same. The foundation became the first of its kind in professional sports established and administered by the players.