The Say Hey! Foundation Family mourns the passing of Willie Mays, our founder and guiding light. He created this Foundation to ensure that every child has the coaching, the support, and the love that he had so that they can unlock all of their potential in this world. He was a great baseball player because he was a great man.
ABOUT WILLIE
Willie Mays is considered the greatest baseball player of all time, for his extraordinary and electrifying feats on the field. But Willie’s greatness extended to his life off of the field as well. Willie grew up in a family and community with few resources. As a black child in that era, his only educational choice was the segregated industrial school that did not have a baseball team. He credited the life he had to hard work, good luck, and the teachers, coaches, and family members who looked after him, nurtured his natural talents, and helped him get the right start in life. For that reason, even as one of the most celebrated figures in the nation, he always took time out to pay that forward to children.
“When Willie received the Presidential Medal of Freedom he dedicated it to the people who had looked after him as a child, the children who inspired him today. ” Willie Mays 1931-2024
Mission
The Say Hey! Foundation is dedicated to fulfilling Willie Mays’s dream of giving every child a chance by offering underprivileged youth positive opportunities through athletics, coaching, nutrition, education, and providing safer communities.
FOUNDATION
The Say Hey! Foundation was established by Willie Mays to give children in communities across America an equal chance to achieve their own true potential, beginning with the communities that first nurtured Willie Mays — from Alabama to New York to California and those communities where the need is greatest. Through his own gift and the generous support of fans and organizations, the Foundation is focused on supplying coaching, facilities, equipment, life-skills training, healthy choices, safety and security to youth. This includes renovating facilities, delivering sporting goods, and partnering with local organizations — including Boys and Girls Clubs, jobs training programs, mentoring and coaching programs, shelters, hospitals, schools, and professional teams — to provide wrap-around support for these youth. Through Willie’s extraordinary bequest, the Foundation works to make his dream a reality.
MEMORIES
GIVE SUPPORT
Willie encourages friends and partners to join him in supporting programs that benefit children or young adults, with the emphasis on education, health, and safety.
Donations to support the Say Hey! Foundation’s efforts are appreciated and can be made online through our secure portal or if you are like Willie and prefer checks, you may send checks to:
Say Hey! Foundation
P.O. Box 2410
Menlo Park, CA 94026
Here is a partial list of valued partners and recipients
- The Arthur Tappan School, P.S. 46, Harlem, N.Y.
- Beebe Memorial Homeless Program
- Numerous Little League teams
- Fairfield Alabama High School Baseball team
- Miles College Baseball team
- The Guardian Scholars program at UCSF, which provides housing for students who were formerly foster children
- Joslin Diabetes Center
- Lucile Packard Children’s Fund
- Glide Memorial
- Family Violence Prevention Fund
- The SF Giants Community Fund and the Junior Giants program
- Willie Mays Scholars