Nats' Ryan Zimmerman's AP diary: Fundraising for virus help

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan Zimmerman is a two-time All-Star infielder who has played 15 years in the majors, all with the Washington Nationals. He holds most of the team’s career hitting records, and his two homers and seven RBIs last postseason helped the Nationals win their first World Series championship. With baseball on hold, Zimmerman is offering his thoughts -- as told to AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich -- while waiting for the 2020 season to begin. This is the third installment; Zimmerman discusses the Pros for Heroes fundraiser he and his wife, Heather, are using to support medical professionals during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Heather and I were at home, like, ‘We’re just sitting here. What can we do over the next weeks or months -- or however long this thing lasts, where people are really battling at the hospital -- so we can help out?’

We realized there are a lot of athletes who can give money or use their social media reach to give this a boost. We wanted to start a fund to give athletes in the D.C. area a way to come together, raise money and pump it directly right back into the community, to the hospitals and to the health-care workers in the D.C.-Virginia-Maryland area.

Those people are fans; they come watch us play. Whether it’s the doctors, the nurses or the patients, these are the people that allow us to do what we do. So this is the least we can do to give back.

A bunch of teammates donated. The Scherzers donated. The Corbins. The Strasburgs. Anthony Rendon and his wife donated. (Capitals forward) Nicklas Backstrom made a generous donation.

I plan to talk to Ryan Kerrigan to try to get some of the Redskins involved. I’ve talked to D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen. I’ll reach out to the Mystics.

This started with giving hospital...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Nats-Ryan-Zimmerman-s-AP-diary-Fundraising-for-15207041.php