Orioles pledge $5M to CollegeBound Foundation

BALTIMORE -- Joined by the mayor of Baltimore on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos announced a pledge of $5 million to CollegeBound Foundation, a Baltimore-based organization that helps Baltimore City public-school students afford college.

“I think about the work my dad [Peter Angelos] did, the work that [former Mayor Kurt Schmoke] did,” Angelos said at a news conference on Monday. “The work that Mayor Brandon Scott is doing, and others, and the Orioles are really honored on Martin Luther King Day to commit $5 million to the CollegeBound group."

Mayor Scott said this type of pledge will go a long way to benefit Baltimore City high-school seniors who have already been accepted to college, but who did not have the funds to afford a four-year education.

"This investment that you are all making into the future of Baltimore through CollegeBound will undoubtedly change the course of our city,” Scott said. “I am going to predict that some of those young people will come back to work for the Orioles in some sort of management role and will be winning the World Series every year so the Yankees will continue to lose it.

"I really want to thank you for that investment. It is truly, truly appreciated. [It] shows the deep commitment that your family [and] the Orioles have for the city of Baltimore. We are very grateful. Thank you very much."

CollegeBound Foundation started in 1988 to help the city fulfill the needs of an increasingly college-educated workforce. Executive director Cassie Motz, a Baltimore native and a big Orioles fan, was thrilled to hear of the donation amount from Angelos.

"A $5 million gift is transformative and we are extremely grateful to Mr. Angelos and the Orioles,” Motz said. “Our current operating budget is about $5 million, so it's a huge boost for our students.

"All of our students are in Baltimore city public schools or graduates of the public schools here. We work with students during high school to guide them to college and then we give out $4 million [worth] of scholarships every year to Baltimore city graduates and we stay with our students during college. So, 75 percent of the students in our program are graduating from four-year college, which is an incredibly impressive number compared to the rest of the state, the rest of the city."

Mayor Scott was very happy to see this type of financial commitment to the city’s high-school students.

"I think about those graduations,” Scott said. “I think about that young student who might be about to graduate and they are short, and CollegeBound will be able to help them get over that hump.”