Cardinals' Wainwright honored with Hutch Award for community service
Adam Wainwright has been to his share of All-Star Games and has recored the final out to cap a World Series Championship with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Despite the accolades he has received from his stellar pro-baseball career, being honored as the 51st recipient of the prestigious Hutch Award -- given to players displaying outstanding community service -- beats any of his other accomplishments.
"What this award stands for means so much more to me than any achievement on the ballfield could ever mean to me," Wainwright said, according to MLB.com.
Way to go, @UncleCharlie50! https://t.co/QSNjwLSjS4
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) January 28, 2016
The Hutch Award is a national honor presented by the Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and has been awarded every year since 1965 in honor of former MLB player and manager Fred Hutchinson, who died of cancer a year prior to the start of the award at age 45.
With Wainwright becoming the 51st recipient of the award, he stands in good company of other professional baseball greats who have also been honored, such as: Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose, Joe Torre, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Lou Brock, George Brett and Johnny Bench. In 2015, Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon received the award.
To earn the Hutch Award, Wainwright and his wife, Jenny, founded and run the Adam and Jenny Wainwright 25:35 Foundation, which was created to help build an orphanage and clean-water project for survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Since 2010, the couple has taken on more projects worldwide through Water Missions International.
Also, Wainwright has hopes of expanding fundraising for Big League Impact where major-leaguers play fantasy football alongside fans to raise money for various different causes individual players support.
"I've been tremendously blessed with talent and fortune," Wainwright said. "What an incredible waste of life it would be if I didn't give back."
Wainwright was presented the award at a luncheon at Safeco Field in Seattle by the president and director of Fred Hutch, Dr. Gary Gilliland. The physical award is a Cerulean Venetian with Sun Yellow Coils created by Seattle glass artist Dale Chihuly.
"To know that there are people who actually think that the work my wife and I are doing around the globe makes a difference is truly special," Wainwright said. "And it's great to get an award for something we do in the community, but that's not why we do it."
From the past 16 years of the event, proceeds have raised more than $4.8 million benefiting research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
