Little League baseball players from an unincorporated area of Los Angeles will reportedly get to play ball this season thanks to a charitable donation from the unlikeliest of donors.
Jet Strip, a gentlemen's club in Lennox, has donated $1,200 to the Lennox Little League, which has been strapped for cash after the Lennox School District imposed some new regulations, according to the Daily Breeze.
A call to the district was not immediately returned.
The donation, along with those from other businesses, will allow 300 little leaguers to play at least one more season, but the league's president, Roberto Aguirre, still isn't optimistic about the long-term future of the league.
"It feels good to be from Lennox when people do stuff like that," Aguirre said to the paper. "At the same time, the future is very scary for us, because [the donation] is a one-time deal."
James Wallace, Jet Strip's general manager, is also a 15-year member of the Lennox Coordinating Council, comparable to an unofficial city council of the community.
Wallace told the paper that he likes to keep the gentlemen's club's donations quiet.
"We don't really like to brag about it," he said.
The school board has also received donations of $1,000 and $600 from the little league in Westchester and the council, respectively.
But Aguirre told the paper that the bigger problem facing the league is the inability to sell food at games.
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Citing health concerns, the K-8 district stopped the league from selling grilled foods, like hamburgers and hot dogs, though it has installed a drain, and a local non-profit, YouthBuild, has promised to build a snack bar for free.
"People don't want candy, candy, candy - chips, chips, chips," Aguirre said. "They want hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries."
But raising the $65,000 necessary for materials to build a snack bar will be tough for a community that is economically depressed.
Lennox is a small, mile-by-mile community adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport that is so impoverished, the league offers families a payment plan so that some can afford the annual $85 it costs to play in the league.
"We're looking up in the sky and hoping for something great," Aguirre told the paper. "If this snack stand happens, it's going to be the best thing that could happen for our league."
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