The 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star game generated a lot of excitement for baseball fans in St. Louis, Missouri. For employees of MasterCard Worldwide’s Global Technology and Operations organization, it generated a great volunteerism opportunity.

Obviously, employees were enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in a myriad of events – and an employee promotion generated a great deal of interest in the tickets for the All-Star Game itself, the State Farm Home Run Derby, the Taco Bell All-Star Sunday, and Major League Baseball’s All-Star FanFest, an interactive baseball theme park and the largest baseball fan event in the world.

But the reach of the All-Star activities went beyond just attending the events – for employees at MasterCard, it meant actively participating in the event. More than 100 St. Louis-based employees of MasterCard partnered with volunteers from the Teach For America – St. Louis organization to staff the MasterCard booth at the five-day Major League Baseball's All-Star FanFest event.

At MasterCard’s FanFest booth, volunteers taught booth visitors through a fun-filled baseball-themed mathematics workbook activity created by MasterCard, Teach for America, and Scholastic. As part of the challenge, children were able to "run the bases" at the MasterCard booth once they solved various baseball-themed math questions at the MasterCard booth; they were also introduced to the sometimes mysterious art of baseball scoring. In total, more than 18,000 booklets were distributed to FanFest attendees.

Among the MasterCard volunteers at FanFest was Shelly Rios, a Business Leader in the Customer and Technology Support group. Shelly recruited co-workers to volunteer to support the session as a team-building event.

"MasterCard believes so strongly in giving back to the community, and is such an avid supporter of math education. This opportunity seemed like a great fit for my team, who are also avid baseball fans!" added Rios. "We had a terrific time interacting with the kids and parents who stopped by the booth."

Jack Williams, another MasterCard volunteer, observed, "When I was volunteering at the booth, we were approached by many teachers and parents who were so excited to see math education integrated in such a fun and engaging way with baseball facts and statistics. Many asked us for extra copies to take with them to share with their children and students – and we certainly were happy to oblige!"

As part of the FanFest sponsorship, MasterCard donated to Teach For America – St. Louis $1 from each purchase made with MasterCard® cards at the five-day MLB All-Star FanFest event, for a total donation of $50,000.

"Supporting the teaching of math and math education are key areas of philanthropic focus for MasterCard in St. Louis," said Amanda Gioia, Business Leader, Worldwide Communications. "In their day-to-day work with students, Teach For America is innovative in making math fun and interactive for students. The math-based activity and the purchase-linked donation worked out as a great alliance for us."

MasterCard and Teach For America have worked together in St. Louis since 2007, with MasterCard providing funding to recruit, train and support mathematics teachers for the organization’s St. Louis corps, which today numbers 165 teachers in the St. Louis Public Schools, the Normandy School District, Wellston Public School, Edison Charter School and Imagine Charter School. With MasterCard support, Teach For America has expanded its presence in St. Louis to serve students living in low-income communities; grown and fostered its alumni base in St. Louis and strengthened the impact of corps members on student achievement.

"As a Teach For America alumna, being a part of the All Star FanFest was amazing, said Collette Owens, 2005 Teach for America alumna. "It was an honor to be able to work with the MasterCard volunteers in the Learning Math through Baseball exhibit. I was impressed with the number of kids who were excited to solve math problems and use the graphs and information to help them. As a baseball fan, I found the information interesting and learned new facts about the All-Star Game."

Owens added, "I would love to be able to incorporate this type of resource into my own classroom. I know our teachers will be able to use the extra booklets to invest their students and enrich their math instruction throughout the year."