For the past decade, Camden, New Jersey, has endured one of the highest rates of murder and poverty in the United States.
In that sense, it’s an unlikely place to start a Little League Baseball organization. But in 2011, Bryan Morton—once a drug dealer and ex-con himself—did just that.
Morton thought that giving kids a place to play baseball would help alleviate the ills that once impacted him and his peers. So he went about transforming the city’s parks into “islands of refuge”—places where kids could let their guards down, and well, just be kids.
The league has since grown by leaps and bounds. That’s all thanks to Morton and a tireless crew of volunteer coaches who are committed to changing the reputation of their city.