Honorees from the nonprofits The Experience Camp and The Reciprocity Effect reflect on their special time being honored by the Yankees.

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Every year, the Yankees take some time in June to hold HOPE Week, honoring several programs and people that uplift each other and their communities. We were lucky enough to get to follow up with a couple of those groups that were highlighted this year, and get a little more about their stories:

The Experience Camps

A difficult part of coping with serious trauma is finding the right people to turn to for help. Talking about it is an essential part of the healing process. However, it can be tough to find someone that is capable of navigating conversations about grief, especially when talking with children.

“Grieving kids too often encounter other kids and adults who are awkward or silent about grief,” Sara Deren, the CEO of The Experience Camps, said. “So they keep those big feelings to themselves to not make anyone uncomfortable.”

Experience Camps are designed to teach that there can be room to talk about those feelings of grief in a more comfortable setting. The summer camp is a nonprofit with camps in 13 locations around the country, serving more than 1,400 kids who have experienced the loss of a parent, sibling, or caregiver. While building the connections and memories that come with any summer camp, they also provide tools to cope with and reframe their grief. Importantly, it gives kids a space where they can be around people who understand and don’t feel like they are burdening others by talking about their loss.

For Levi Ala-Nichols, 15, this summer will be his first time attending an Experience Camp. His mother passed early this year, and his caregiver encouraged him to try it out. Although Levi has yet to attend the camp, he is looking for something to help him understand what he has gone through this year. “I am looking for some closure,” Ala-Nichols said. He said that, in general, he’s comfortable opening up about his loss, but he thinks the camp can offer more insights. “It might be a better way to find people who actually understand what you are going through.”

Ala-Nichols, who pitches for his baseball team, is a fourth-generation Yankee fan — his fandom, in addition to his love of baseball, are both things his mom handed down to him.

The Yankees organization discovered the camp through a blog post done by Max Freyman, a teenage camp counselor at Camp Baco that organized a fundraising race to raise money for The Experience Camp in memory of his father. The post made it to someone that worked for the Yankees, and the camp was ultimately picked to be a HOPE Week honoree. They started the day with arcade games then went to Yankee Stadium to be on the field during batting practice and throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Heading into the arcade, Ala-Nichols had no idea who he was going to see when he arrived but quickly recognized Trent Grisham already there trying out some games. He started freaking out to his grandmother. It was a moment that most sports fans can relate to from their childhood: being within a few feet of a player on their favorite team. Seeing Grisham mess around on a claw machine filled with rubber ducks was just the start of his memories for that day.

Every camper was paired with a different player in small groups. Ala-Nichols was matched with Clay Holmes, excitedly noting that Holmes had chosen him, and they quickly bonded. They competed in pop-a-shot and discussed pitching. Ala-Nichols explained that he had just undergone arm surgery, and Holmes offered him recovery advice. Ala-Nichols also put on his reporter’s hat, seeking insider information on Judge’s status after he was removed from the previous day’s game due to being hit by a pitch on the hand.

What stuck out to the young pitcher was how interactive and welcoming the players were. Ala-Nichols recalled one particularly special moment where players hyped him up after catching a big fish with a bass-hunting game.

After the arcade fun, they had a sharing circle where it was an open forum to share about their grief and opening up. “The Yankees players in the sharing circle that day showed our kids they could handle it. Clay Holmes spoke to them about courage and vulnerability. Jahmai Jones modeled those traits by sharing his own story of loss. The Yankees gave those kids hope for their own bright futures.”

Ala-Nichols agreed: “It was nice to hear that some MLB players have gone through the same thing.”

What particularly stood out to Ala-Nichols was hearing Jahmai Jones talk about his experience with losing his father as a 13-year-old. Jones had mentioned that he wished he had an opportunity like The Experience Camp when he was going through his loss. It may sound simple, but hearing a high-status person, like a major-league player, give their stamp of approval that it is okay and necessary to express grief can help campers who are reluctant to be vulnerable. Young athletes like Ala-Nichols emulate the pros in many ways, and by seeing them express raw emotions connected to their own past losses, they can give themselves permission to do the same. It didn’t matter if they were teenage campers or professional athletes. In the circle, they were all just humans trying to process losing someone who mattered to them and navigate the uncomfortable nature of grieving.

After the arcade, the campers and staff headed to Yankee Stadium to be on the field during batting practice. Ala-Nichols got a photo with Anthony Volpe, and caught a moment with Aaron Boone, but the big surprise came right before the game, when representatives from the camp had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch. He then reconnected with Holmes, and learned that he would be his catching partner.

Ala-Nichols wanted to throw it from the mound, but he was not allowed to, so he settled for showing off his arm. “Mine was the only one that didn’t bounce,” Ala-Nichols said eager to share, showing his competitive side. “it was the first pitch to hit his glove, too.” The pitch was a great finale for a day Ala-Nichols will cherish.

The Experience Camp provides no-cost, nationwide camps to help empower grieving kids to reframe their perception and provide coping tools to properly move forward. You can donate to the camp with this hyperlink.

The Reciprocity Effect

Reciprocity: the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.

Rehan Staton greets me over Zoom after an all-hands-on-deck stretch with his law firm. He has been working every night until around 3 a.m., but you won’t catch him complaining about it or even sense that he is tired. He’s energized by having the presence of mind to take in what he has overcome to get where he is now. He talks with me as if he is just starting his day, in a tone as if we’ve known each other for years — enthusiastic and genuine.

His life story is tailor-made for a human-interest story you would see on a morning show. He grew up in a financially unstable situation with a single dad that worked multiple jobs — this is the man he credits for his outstanding work ethic and his altruistic mindset. He started working in sanitation after high school. Initially he decided to forgo college, but later, through the encouragement of his co-workers and sacrifices made by his family, he attended Bowie State College. He then transferred to University of Maryland where he excelled and was selected as the commencement speaker. He continued working in sanitation while in school.

After graduating, he was bed-ridden with an unknown illness for several months in 2019. As he was recovering, unable to work, he began rigorously preparing for the LSAT.

Fearing for his mortality due to his illness, he began documenting significant moments. “We didn’t know if I was going to pass away,” Staton said. “We didn’t know if things were going to get worse. I got down to 114 pounds, and things were looking a little bleak. But [my cousin] just wanted to record it so we could see the journey, no matter what.”

So, when he got a decision letter from Harvard Law School, with his cousin by his side, he decided it would be a right to capture the authentic, vulnerable moment:

You know that with the fact it went viral, he’s going to get in, but somehow your heart still races during the lead-up to the opening of the letter.

The video went viral on social media, and he was interviewed by several national morning shows. Consistent with the theme of the Yankees HOPE week, it highlighted the positives of social media. “For me, it was nice to be a part of something that society deemed an uplifting thing,” Staton said. “I think it was nice that a lot of people reached out to me and said that ‘you were the reason why I went back to school.’” Four years later, the video, or a news story featuring Staton, will still be randomly reposted and gain a new life on TikTok and Instagram Reels. He continues to receive messages from people who share how they found inspiration in his journey.

He graduated from Harvard Law and now works for a law firm in New York City, in addition to starting a nonprofit, The Reciprocity Effect. The goal is to give recognition, and grant-based aid to support staff of educational institutions and corporations.

A couple months ago, his office rang with a caller ID that said it was the Yankees. “My assumption was they were a client for my firm. And that they were just calling the wrong office.”

To Staton’s surprise, the Yankees had seen his story on the news, and wanted to know how they could help. “I told them I wanted to honor New York and New Jersey sanitation workers,” Staton said. “They literally just jumped and said ‘oh can we help with that?’ We just came together and made it happen. It was literally that simple. There was no politics or negotiating. It was “oh wow” this is a really good idea.”

So, in addition to the Yankees honoring Staton for HOPE Week, they honored a dozen workers for the Interstate Waste Services during a luncheon this past month.

The recognition by the Yankees was a breakthrough for the young nonprofit, but it was the ability to highlight local workers that stood out for Staton. “I can’t tell you how many people pulled me to the side and said, of course we don’t do this to be recognized,” Staton said. “But it really feels nice to be seen and appreciated for the work that we do … Those were the moments that will stick with me for the rest of my life.”

The idea for his nonprofit, Reciprocity Effect, was influenced by his background, of course, but the impetus for the specific idea to find a way to better recognize service and support staff was when he was just being himself in a Harvard building, saying hello and being conversational to everyone that he comes across. But it caught one campus custodian off guard.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were talking to me.” Staton remembers her saying. “Students would rather look at the wall than talk to me.”

That moment sparked his new mission of creating more reciprocity between support and service workers in office and school buildings for the work they do to keep everything running. “After that encounter, I said you know what? I would like to create something to make sure I can make as many people feel seen as possible … like with blue-collar work.”

Staton remembers his days in sanitation, and how the work can be draining. “You get a lot more criticism than praise,” Staton recalled. “There’s a lot of different ways that you can get criticized while you’re doing the job.”

He and a few of his classmates ran with the idea. They started out with a thank-you card drive. Then he held an award ceremony recognizing the Harvard Law School support staff. “And now we are working with the New York Yankees,” Staton said about the nonprofit’s journey. “It was all just built out of this interaction where this woman was so surprised that I talked to her and now here we are two years later.”

When asked what people can do day-to-day to better aid those who help us get through our days but may not receive much praise or recognition, his answer was fairly simple: You do not need to start a nonprofit to show appreciation. “I think it’s not recognition in terms of an award,” Staton said. “It’s just recognition of their humanity. I think oftentimes, for whatever reason, blue-collar or service workers often get pushed back to the bottom of the visibility list.”