This year’s big annual MLB All-Star game isn’t going to be the barrage of showy commercialism like those of yesteryear. Instead, the theme seems to be grassroots community, philanthropy and corporate responsibility, and everyone from the sponsors to the baseball teams are joining in.

Sponsors

Baseball is the latest industry ready to stake its claim as an important social institution, not just a game, and sponsors have gotten the message.

Sponsors “are going to help us leave St. Louis in a better way than we found it,” said John Brody, senior vice president of corporate sales and marketing at Major League Baseball. “We believe in this time that we need to answer the call to service.”

So what exactly are the sponsors doing?

• PepsiCo put on a free Sheryl Crow concert at the Arch grounds on Saturday night to raise donations for cancer research.
• The Anheuser-Busch Foundations is contributing more than $180,000 to help finish a baseball field at Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club in north St. Louis. The money will go toward a scoreboard, fencing, irrigation and grading.
• State Farm plans to donate between $500K and $1 million to the Boys & Girls Club of America. The exact amount will be determined by the number of balls hit out of the park during the Home Run Derby.
• Bank of America is contributing $5K to local food banks for every hit notched during the All-Star Game, on top of matching fans’ contributions to FeedingAmerica.org. BAO expects to donate $100,000.
• Holiday Inn is chipping in $37,500 to kids’ charities.
• A number of baseball’s sponsors, including KPMG, Mastercard an Anheuser-Busch, are sending hundreds of volunteers to help with recycling, greeting and escorting folks at the charity concert and other events.

MLB Teams

People Magazine teamed up with the 2009 All-Star Summer events dedicated to charitable initiatives and recognition of the importance of community service for our nation's growth. Nearly three quarters of a million votes were cast at PeopleAllStars.com by fans across the nation to select the 30 "All-Stars Among Us" winners (one per MLB club) out of the pool of 90 finalists who are serving as leaders within their communities. One winning "All-Star Among Us" will be featured in PEOPLE the week of the All-Star Game.

Cool Fact: Mets “All-Stars Among Us” winner, Tara Suri, is a member of Do Something’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC). Galvanized by the sexism she encountered in India at 13, Tara founded Turn Your World Around to engage young people in initiatives ranging from empowering sex trafficking victims to increasing access to education. She has impacted thousands around the world and is dedicated to forging a movement of youth creating change.

Comprised of teenagers from across the continent, the YAC helps DS include the wide diversity of opinions and life experiences of our nation’s young people.