Yankees hit the streets to celebrate HOPE Week finale

NEW YORK -- The Yankees concluded the 14th edition of HOPE Week by taking to the neighborhood streets.

Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Jose Trevino and Clay Holmes were among the Bombers who surprised a group of local children on Friday as the Yankees honored Street Lab, a non-profit group that creates temporary pop-up programs for city streets and public places in New York.

Clarke Schmidt, Oswaldo Cabrera, Billy McKinney, Ron Marinaccio, Ian Hamilton, Nick Ramirez and third-base coach Luis Rojas were also on hand for the outdoor festival. Players and children rotated between basketball, pickup baseball, hockey, chess and even drawing with chalk, all near the corner of Jennings Street and Prospect Avenue in the Bronx.

“Interacting with the kids was great,” Trevino said. “You could tell how much fun they have and how comfortable they feel around all the volunteers, all the people there. They’re doing a really good job with that.”

Friday’s event wrapped another series of remarkable HOPE Week stories, with events throughout New York City’s five boroughs celebrating an individual, family or organization worthy of recognition or support.

“It’s the most rewarding thing, and certainly the best thing we’ll probably do all year -- and that’s hoping we play in meaningful October games and play in the World Series,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll look back and these are the weeks and the events you take part in that are bigger than baseball.”

Co-founded by Leslie and Sam Davol, Street Lab aims to reimagine how public space can be utilized in local neighborhoods, transforming parks, plazas and parking lots into areas designed for use by all ages. Like Friday’s event, those spaces can be assembled and broken down within hours.

“Our idea is to create installations where people gather in public space,” said Sam Davol. “It’s also about bringing New Yorkers out from their apartment or from behind the walls and to do things together. It helps to elevate learning in that neighborhood and also provide access to those things where they might not be available.”

The Street Lab concept came to fruition in 2006, when the Davols lived in Boston. They relocated to New York in 2011, and what was originally known as the Uni Project debuted with a public market in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2011.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges, but also opportunities: by using outdoor spaces, people could collaborate while adhering to social distancing guidelines. That spurred some of Street Lab’s most successful programs to date, such as PLAY, a pop-up obstacle course with colorful barriers, hurdles and balance beams.

With a full-time staff of six employees and approximately 30 part-time workers, Street Lab provided 353 pop-ups in 2022, more than double its total from 2019. They have their sights set upon even more to come.

“I want it to fulfill the promise of its name for New York City,” said Leslie Davol. “For us all to envision the streets, our public spaces and the streetscape to be the city we want it to be -- that supports us living together and connecting New Yorkers.”