NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball headquarters got a healthy dose of holiday cheer on Monday, when over 50 employees gathered to wrap gifts as part of the company’s annual “Winter Wishes” event.

Since 1997, MLB has partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) on yearly initiatives that support underserved youth nationwide across over 5,000 BGCA clubs. This year’s NYC “Winter Wishes” event benefited the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, which serves over 1,200 children and teens aged 5 to 18 every year.

To get their holiday wishes fulfilled, kids from the Harlem BGC wrote letters to Santa Claus, which were collected by MLB Together (MLB’s social responsibility platform). From Nov. 20-Dec. 6, approximately 100 MLB employees signed up to buy a gift and fulfill a specific child’s wish. In total, 125 gifts were donated.

“The Boys and Girls Club, they open their doors to children and youth in the area who might be in an underserved household who might not be able to get all of their holiday gift wish lists fulfilled,” said April Brown, SVP of social responsibility and community affairs at MLB. “So this means the world to [those children].”

Upon arriving at “Winter Wishes,” employees picked a gift, wrapped it in festive paper and ribbon at a designated wrapping station and dropped it off with volunteers organizing the gifts. Wrappers were rewarded with a raffle for MLB prize packs, mocktails from Absence of Proof and sweet treats from two other local small businesses, Operation Cookies and Fern and Aurora. A playlist curated with volunteers’ hand-selected holiday favorites kept spirits bright throughout. After an hour and 15 minutes, all 125 gifts were wrapped and ready to be shipped and distributed to the kids before they went on their Christmas break.

“Winter Wishes” is the flagship event of the MLB Women Employee Resource Group (ERG), which partnered with two other ERGs to run this year’s event -- MLB Home Base (working parents) and Military Veteran Professionals. The event has been running annually since 2002.

“What I love about [Winter Wishes] is that it's gotten bigger and better,” said Ariana Smith, co-chair of MLB Women and a senior product manager of enterprise products at MLB. “Every year, we've been able to increase the number of employees that come. It's gone from just being for women, to everyone.

“It's great to see employees come together, step away from their desks at a really busy time of year and have fun for two hours [and] just hang out, relax, get to know each other, talk. People are wrapping, people are socializing, people are just spending time with each other. So it's great to see the community come together to support a really important cause. And for [MLB] Women, this is our big event. We love it. We look forward to this.”

MLB continued the holiday cheer with a “Winter Wishes” holiday party on Friday evening, when 40 children from the Harlem BGC ranging from elementary schoolers to teenagers came to the Manhattan MLB headquarters for some festive seasonal fun. This was the first “Winter Wishes” holiday party since 2019, before the pandemic.

The kids were first treated to a scrumptious array of ballpark food, including chicken, fries and hot dogs with all the fixings. Then, they took in a dazzling magic show from “The Amazing Randy,” which featured a never-ending string of gum, impressive rope and ball tricks, oohs, aahs and much more. A cookie decorating session followed, in which the children dressed up sugar cookies in colorful red and green icing and sprinkles. Next up was photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, who were on hand throughout the event to spread Christmas cheer. Fifteen MLB employee volunteers helped facilitate the festivities by clearing away dishes and passing out cookie decorating materials.

The grand finale? None other than Mr. and Mrs. Met, who donned festive sweaters and passed out backpacks filled with goodies to every child in attendance amidst a chorus of approving cheers.

Four other MLB offices held their own “Winter Wishes” to benefit local BGCA chapters. MLB’s Tickets.com office in Costa Mesa, Calif., wrapped gifts for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley; the MLB Boulder office helped fulfill wishes for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver; MLB’s San Francisco office spread holiday cheer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco; and the MLB Network office in Secaucus, N.J., held a “Winter Wishes” event benefiting the Boys & Girls Club -- Salvation Army Newark.

“For more than 20 years, MLB employees have provided Club kids with an amazing holiday experience,” said Frank Sanchez, vice president of business and community affairs for the Boys & Girls Club of America. “We cannot thank Commissioner Manfred and his entire leadership team enough for their generosity.”

Additionally, MLB has been running other charity initiatives this holiday season. On Giving Tuesday (Nov. 28), MLB gave all full-time employees $25 to donate through a company portal to the charity of their choice. For the first time, MLB also partnered with other NYC-based sports leagues and teams on a coat drive for New York Cares, which collects winter coats for New Yorkers in need.

Through all of these events, MLB employees donated their time and money to give back to worthy causes all over the country.

“It's the impact that we make off the field using the power of our sport to make dreams come true for children,” Brown said. “They will know that there are employees at Major League Baseball that care about them and that want them to have a great holiday season and to have their dreams come true.”