Dellin Betances gave the children of St Mary’s Kids hospital in Brooklyn a big save this past weekend. In an event that was put together by his sister Emelina and her Partner Lorena Abarca from the “Betances & Abarca Real Estate Group,” hundreds of toys were gathered for children that can’t go home for Christmas because of one illness or another.
Dellin spent a full afternoon taking pictures and signing autographs for all the people that were there. He walked around the catering hall with his new baby just being one of the guys, and the people there loved it.
Ken Thimel of “Pay it Forward” auctions even brought in some incredible memorabilia and auctioned it off with the proceeds going to the children. Dani Cipolla, the Podcast Queen, was also there to properly make everyone feel important while doing her show. Singer songwriter Alex Martin was there to sing some Christmas songs including one that was dedicated to Dellin and his family.
As you can imagine the big question by a lot of the guests was, are you coming back to the Yankees? Dellin very politely dodged the question. There were no exclusives on this day. Dellin wanted to keep the focus on what he was there for, the Children. He did a great job at doing that.
I have to give credit to many of Dellin’s Yankee teammates for signing and delivering a lot of their equipment. You can tell that Dellin’s favorite teammate may have been C. C. Sabathia because of how beautifully C. C. signed his spikes, with all of his career achievements written on one of the shoes. Thank goodness that the shoes were a size 15.
The bottom line is that Dellin has not forgotten where he came from. I must add that he still acts like a big brother to his sister Emelina who is just like her brother in the fact that giving back is just as important to her. At one point she actually cried while addressing the audience about the importance of helping these kids.
This was a wonderful event with the heart being in the right place. I first met Dellin and the Betances Family when he was in high school and I can only say that I am very proud to call them my friends.
God bless the children at St. Mary’s kids’ hospital and thank you to the Betances & Abarca Real Estate Group for making things more than just business.
A special thank you to Alfred Zaccagnino from the Samaritan Group for donating toys here and also sending toys to PS 55 in the Bronx and as usual, the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.