THE BARNSTORMING TOUR – CONCEPT

The Tour will take place in early July of 2023 and include three major components at each stop along they way and a fourth stop in August:

• A Breaking Barriers Day Camp (Clinic),

• An exhibition game against a local high school team

• A public screening of The Other Boys of Summer followed by a panel discussion

• The L.E.A.D. Safe at Home Game (August 2023)

The Ambassador team will travel by school bus across Georgia, making a total of four overnight stops. Their experience will include onboard lesson plans describing what it was really like to be a young talented Black professional baseball player traveling through the mid-century American South. They will stay in local motels and dine at local restaurants and on box lunches—a shoe-string budget experience emulating some of the experience of their Negro League predecessors.

In August, they will experience a luxury charter bus ride where they will be accommodated at a downtown Atlanta Hotel prior to playing their final exhibition game on the Tour in a professional or Division 1 college stadium

(most likely Georgia Tech). That evening’s contest will be L.E.A.D.’s annual Safe at Home Game between the L.E.A.D. Ambassadors and the local Atlanta Police Department baseball team.

The transition within the Tour from school bus/motel accommodations to charter bus/ luxury hotel will be a surprise to the young men, and a reminder of what it might have felt like to Jackie Robinson when he broke the color barrier, entered the Major Leagues and gained the greater recognition that he and so many others had long been denied and so deeply deserved.

Their arrival will be celebrated and honored with significant media coverage as they are introduced and take the field that final evening against their APD opponents.

Each game will be followed by a screening of The Other Boys of Summer. The stops prior to the final game will include a 90-minute program that amplifies diverse voices and is designed to bring people together and create a space for a shared experience that sparks meaningful conversation.

The screening includes the critically acclaimed film (42 min.) followed by a panel discussion. Additional tools and content provided for the screening include a discussion guide, poster/ logo/art files for promotion, a resource list, filmmaker bio, sample run of show, tech specs and more.

The screening program has provided tangible results for team building, creating allyships and providing a space for powerful conversations around race, equity, social injustice and cultural competency. The documentary introduces viewers to civil rights pioneers who changed America by pursuing their dreams—a triumphant story of resilience in the most unlikely of situations. The Other Boys of Summer is an original program that motivates and inspires.

Tour Stop Summary

While the timing and scope of activities may be adapted slightly based on the needs of each host town, our planned run-of show will generally be executed as follows at each stop:

Time/Duration Activity Participants

10:00am – 11:00am

11:00am – 12:00pm

12:00pm – 1:00pm

1:00pm – 2:00pm

2:00pm – 3:30pm

3:30pm – 4:30pm

5:00pm – 6:00pm

6:00pm – 7:00pm

7:00pm – 9:00pm

Ambassador Breakfast and arrival at Field

Warmup & briefing on day’s events

Breaking Barriers Clinic

Pre-game ceremonies / remarks

Breaking Barriers Exhibition Game

Box lunch for players/ Set up for Screening

Ambassadors and Tour organizers

Ambassadors, Tour organizers, Local organizers

Ambassadors, Local children (pre-teens) & their families

Honorary managers/sponsors/local leaders to speak

Ambassadors vs. Local high school team

Ambassador & Local Team / Event organizers

Screening of The Other Boys of Summer Tumbleweed Pictures and local organizers

Moderated Panel Discussion

Dinner for Ambassadors/Return to Hotel

Local leaders, managers & Civil Rights advocate(s)

Ambassadors and Tour organizers

Media Assets And Promotion

Bally Sports South will serve as the L.E.A.D. Barnstorming Tour exclusive media partner, with the allocation of the following assets to the Tour:

Top level sponsors will be provided exclusive opportunities to be mentioned or showcased within these assets, expanding the reach of their commitment to the tour to include over 400,000 impressions.

Tour Map

The Barnstorming Tour will make multiple stops through Georgia. Our preliminary plan envisions stops at three of the four communities identified below.

Forsyth County (Host – Former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan)

Macon (Host - Mercer University)

Kennesaw (Host – Kennesaw State University)

Carrollton (Host – University of West Georgia)

Safe at Home Game at Georgia Tech or other venue

Actual tour stops are subject to change

Program Goals

The L.E.A.D. Barnstorming Tour will deliver on three primary goals:

BREAK BARRIERS – Foster direct engagement between young Black men of Atlanta and the local children and their parents in communities that currently lack higher levels of multi-racial exposure and experience. With greater engagement comes increased familiarity, less fear, deeper understanding and more empathy that will ultimately strengthen communities across the region and inspire the next generation to overcome stereotypes and meet the challenges of the future together.

INCREASE AWARENESS OF SYSTEMIC RACISM,

PAST AND PRESENT – Provide a historical understanding of the systemic racism of the past and its role in limiting opportunities for our most at-risk young men in the present. Through the cultural artifact of the Negro Leagues, we can acknowledge and process the injustices of the past and be inspired to properly address the limitations they impose to all of us in our shared community. This goal aligns with L.E.A.D.’s Know Your Truth programming component, which takes the people, places, things, ideas and concepts that are intentionally left out of K-12 education and brings them to life through baseball.

Celebrate The Game Of Baseball And The Triumph Of The Human Spirit

– The Barnstorming Tour will deliver lifelong memories for our young men by placing them in an important narrative of American history—one that, through the principles and virtues of baseball, exemplifies all that America aspires to be. The Tour will be an American story coming to life, showcasing the athletic excellence, perseverance, commitment, and most of all community—the assertion that America is at its best when we are all able to come together with a sense of decency, civility, respect and love, to achieve our shared aspirations.