ALLENTOWN, Pa. — More than a dozen young baseball players joined city officials and their coaches Friday night to unveil a new mural in Fountain Park.
The mural — titled “Manos Que Reciclan, Mundo Que Respira” or “Hands That Recycle, A World That Breathes” in English — now graces the east side of the wall that separates the baseball and soccer fields at the park just south of Martin Luther King Drive.
It overlooks the field used by the Juan Sanchez Baseball League, which landed a $5,000 grant from Allentown’s Youth Climate Action Fund to create the mural.
“It reminds us that when we take care of our environment, we're also taking care of each other in the next generation."Cynthia Mota, Allentown City Council
City Council Vice President Cynthia Mota called the artwork “a message of hope, responsibility and also action.”
“It reminds us that when we take care of our environment, we're also taking care of each other in the next generation,” she said.
Sanchez, with Mota acting as a translator, said he has spent two decades teaching kids in the park.
“[My] main goal is not only to teach the youth baseball, but also to educate them and for them to become good people,” he said through Mota.
Artist Alexis Valerio, also addressing in Spanish and English through a translator, said he strives to “show the children and everyone … the colors, the form, the art.”
Valerio, who came to the Lehigh Valley from the Dominican Republic, said he works to honor “what I've learned through life, what my parents, my grandparents had showed me.”
Mayor Matt Tuerk said it was “absolutely amazing” to “watch this drab wall come totally alive” as part of the Youth Climate Action Fund.
“[My] main goal is not only to teach the youth baseball, but also to educate them and for them to become good people."Juan Sanchez, speaking through Cynthia Mota as a translator
YCAF projects “give young people an opportunity to create something” with lasting impact that expresses their desire to fight climate change and reflects their pride, he said.
Allentown launched its Youth Climate Action Fund last spring after receiving $50,000 from Bloomberg Philanthropies to fund climate-focused microgrants for youth organizations. The city landed another $100,000 grant in January.
Eight projects each got $5,000 from the fund’s first round of grants; the Juan Sanchez Baseball League’s mural was among 14 projects funded in the second round.
