This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- Nestor Cortes grew up in greater Miami with a knack for wielding a hammer or a saw or a screwdriver. That’s thanks to his amateur handyman dad, who probably didn’t foresee his son making it to the Major Leagues and then putting those skills to use with a group of grade schoolers on the warning track.
But Cortes must have been a quick study, judging by the speed with which he completed the first of the 60 bookshelves built by the Brewers and their young assistants as part of a community event involving the entire team on Monday.
The students came to American Family Field from Lloyd Barbee Montessori School and Greenfield Bilingual School via Forward Scholars, a community volunteer tutoring program focused on helping kids from kindergarten through third grade who need some help to catch up to grade level in their reading. The program began in 2022 with five partner schools and has grown to nine schools today.
“We’re so thrilled that the Brewers offered this opportunity to our students,” said Carrie Streiff-Stuessy, the program’s executive director. “The kids have worked hard all year long. They’ve gone to tutoring twice a week with their dedicated community volunteer. They have learned not only to love to read, not only to be able to read, but to understand what it really means to have perseverance and to get through things that can feel hard sometimes.”
The kids each went home with their bookshelves and a stack of books courtesy of Brewers Community Foundation and the club’s “Beyond the Diamond” community initiative, a series of outreach events throughout the season meant to connect players, coaches, alumni, families and front office personnel with the community.
“We’re out here with the kids pushing reading, which I think is something that especially in the summer can fall by the wayside, but is still as important as it is during the school year,” said Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins, a new dad. “We feel good about doing good things.”
Is Hoskins handy around the house?
“I’m getting handier with a 7-month-old,” he said. “Luckily they gave us some pretty elementary bookshelves right now.”