The St. Louis Cardinals are urging fans attending this weekend’s Winter Warm-Up (#WWU) to donate a baseball glove in support of the “Gloves 4 Troops” effort organized by Cardinals minor league infielder Vance Albitz, who hopes to collect at least a thousand baseball gloves and balls by spring training.

“This is a great opportunity to support our troops while also helping kids in our community,” said Michael Hall, vice president of community relations and executive director of Cardinals Care. “We are inspired by Vance’s selfless efforts and want to do our part to help him achieve his goal.”

Cardinals Care, with the help of Rawlings, will have a number of collection bins set up as fans enter the 17th annual Warm-Up at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch. Fans are encouraged to donate gently used gloves and balls. Cardinals Care has enlisted the support of the local chapter of Hope for Heroes of the Epsilon Sigma Alpha organization at Scott Air Force Base to assist with the delivery of the gloves to the troops deployed oversees.

“Gloves 4 Troops” (#Gloves4Troops) is a volunteer effort organized by Albitz, an infielder with the Springfield Cardinals, who has already collected more than 200 gloves. Learn more at www.gloves4troops.com.

The highly-anticipated annual Winter Warm-Up takes place Saturday, Jan. 19, through Monday, Jan. 21. The event times are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday. You may still purchase passes for the three day event at www.cardinals.com/winterwarmup.

Cardinals Care was established to give fans a way of teaming up with Cardinals players and the Cardinals organization to help children in our community – both on and off the baseball field. Since it was established 16 years ago, Cardinals Care has invested nearly $18 million in helping children, including providing nearly $11 million in grants to more than 800 non-profit youth organizations, and building 19 youth ball fields in neighborhoods in both Missouri and Illinois. For nearly a decade, Cardinals Care has run the innovative Redbird Rookies program, a free baseball league for kids who otherwise might not have the opportunity to play. In addition to providing all the uniforms, gloves, bats, balls and other equipment needed for each team, Redbird Rookies also provides extensive off-field support in the areas of health, education, mentoring and the cultural arts for each of the nearly 4,500 kids who participate in the program each year.