Today, a few Brewers players will be trading in their baseball caps for hard hats, as outfielders Ryan Braun and Christian Yelich and pitcher Chase Anderson help Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity kick off its new build season in the Midtown neighborhood.
Braun will speak on Tuesday in front of a large crowd of volunteers, who will be on site to raise the walls of seven new construction homes being built on the 2100 and 2200 blocks of North 29th Street. With the Brewers Community Foundation, Braun is sponsoring one of the homes that is beginning construction.
The build launches Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity’s Midtown 100 initiative to build, rehab and repair 100 homes in the Midtown neighborhood in the next three years. It's one of the Brewers' Beyond the Diamond community outreach efforts.
"Three in five Milwaukee renters are living in unaffordable housing, paying 40 percent, 50 percent and in some cases 70 percent of their income just to put a roof over their heads," said Milwaukee Habitat Executive Director Brian Sonderman. "We are so grateful to have the support of Brewers Community Foundation, Ryan Braun and all of the organizations joining us in combating our city's affordable housing crisis."
Over the past 34 years, Milwaukee Habitat has served more than 1,000 families in the local community through new construction, rehab and repair programs. With Habitat’s help, homeowners achieve the strength, stability and independence they need to build a better life for themselves and their families. Read more about Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity's Midtown project here.
This is the 12th year the Brewers have been involved with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, one of many organizations with which the club partners. For more information on the Brewers Community Foundation, click here.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
