Padres & Emerson College Project Take Rosarito Students Out To The Ball Game
ROSARITO BEACH, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO—On Sunday, August 23, 2009, eight Rosarito Beach-area residents were treated to an afternoon at San Diego’s PETCO Park, courtesy of the Padres Foundation and in conjunction with an ongoing public affairs project, “Rediscover Rosarito”, led by Emerson College students and faculty. The students, aged 13 to 18, enjoyed a memorable experience while serving as cross-cultural ambassadors for the Baja community.
Rosarito Beach Mayor Hugo Torres expressed his gratitude to the Padres organization for hosting the group, providing their tickets, and presenting them with souvenirs. Both Torres and the Padres envision the event as the first step in a long-term partnership: “There are many Padres fans in Rosarito Beach and there will certainly be many more. We very much look forward to continuing to develop interest in both the Padres and in our beachside community, which is only thirty miles away from San Diego,” he said.
”The Padres were delighted to serve as hosts,” said Alex Montoya, the Padres Director of Latino Relations, ”and show how baseball in a beautiful ballpark is tremendously fun, especially for the children present. At the same time we look forward to speaking more with officials from Rosarito and exploring more things we can do in that city and how we can make their visits to PETCO Park even better.”
The event was organized by Rediscover Rosarito, (http://www.rediscoverosarito.org) a public affairs/public diplomacy project led by Dr. Gregory Payne that is dedicated to the community of Playas de Rosarito, Baja California. Established in 2008, the effort is run by a grassroots coalition of graduate students from Emerson College in Boston and local Rosarito Beach leaders and supporters. Its mission is to mitigate the effects of a steady stream of bad news and inaccurate reporting coming from Mexico and restore Rosarito Beach’s image as a safe, secure, convenient location for tourism, retirement and investment.
The afternoon was spearheaded by Emerson Masters in Communication Management candidate Jeffrey Werner, who worked closely with Rosarito-area leaders, “I was personally excited to have helped build a much-needed bridge between the municipality and the Padres, in addition to the obvious pleasure of sharing the event with the students themselves.” He added, “I look forward to similar future endeavors with Mayor Torres and his staff.”
Emerson School of Communication Dean Janis Anderson also expressed her support for the project. ”It is always gratifying to find our students utilizing their Emerson education by applying it to a real world situation and using it to do their best to improve a particular situation.”
For more information, please contact:
Ron Raposa
Telephone: (619) 948-3740
E-mail: ronraposa@hotmail.com
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