McConaughey gives back through Rangers

ARLINGTON -- Five years ago, award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey told himself it was time to re-adjust. Something had to give. Gone would be his music label, and production duties would follow quickly behind. Three things, he told himself, were about to capture his full attention.

"I'm going to be a father. I'm going to run my foundation. And I'm going to be an actor for hire," he said. "Those three things -- that fills up my time."

On Friday, the Oscar winner made a trip to the Texas Rangers Youth Ballpark to fulfill the second of those three activities as the founder of the just keep livin foundation.

McConaughey started the organization three years ago and partners with the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation to promote healthy lifestyles for students in participating schools both locally and nationally. The foundation emphasizes exercise, goal setting and community service.

"It's pretty amazing about how excited they are about waking up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning to pack up stuff to send stuff to troops overseas," McConaughey said. "They want the challenge. They want to be held sort of responsible for having to give back. A lot of these young men and women didn't have the upbringing -- don't have the upbringing that say I had. [They] don't have the mother or the father or the mentors. So we're giving them a place to get that. And it's a safe place."