Turn Two for Youth co-founders, Eric Smith and Billy Owens will receive the American Baseball Coaches Association’s 2018 Meritorious Service Award at the ABCA Convention on January 6, 2018 in Indianapolis, IN. The Annual ABCA Convention is the world’s largest baseball convention with more than 5,000 coaches in attendance.

Charlotte locals, Eric Smith and Billy Owens, created Turn Two for Youth in 2015 as a grassroots campaign to collect baseball and softball gear locally for distribution to youth in poverty stricken areas of

Turks and Caicos. Since then, Turn Two for Youth has received donations from all over the United States and redistributed it around the world. Gently used gear has made it to the hands of kids in need from the Dominican Republic to South Africa and even stateside, including areas such as Los Angeles and Houston.

In 2017, the American Baseball Coaches Association named Turn Two for Youth as their official charity. Since its partnership, Turn Two for Youth has collected over four tons of baseball equipment through the generosity of coaches, players and parents. To read the full story on Turn Two for Youth receiving the 2018 ABCA Meritorious Service Award visit www.abca.org/ABCA/Awards and click on the link for the Meritorious Service Award.