Colorado Springs teen pioneers organization to solve racial and socioeconomic inequality in baseball

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A local 16-year-old teenager, Josh Kates, founded a non-profit organization that strives to bring equality to America's favorite pastime: baseball.

Kates, a Colorado Springs native, plays baseball at Air Academy High School. He umpires local leagues and also coaches young kids.

He writes that with all the racial inequality movements, he decided "to do something to make a change." Kates adds, "I wanted to make a change in the community I was most involved with, the baseball community. Through my years of playing, I've begun to notice the overwhelming influence that money plays in baseball. To be good, you had to have and spend way too much money, and money separated the good leagues from the bad."

With the costs of baseball in mind, the teenager started Equality at the Plate Foundation. The organization provides funds to help solve racial and socioeconomic inequality in baseball.

Their mission statement says, in part, "We believe in baseball there should be equal opportunity for all. Funds are donated to low income and minority communities to help their local baseball programs."

Funds go toward promoting equal opportunities for all kids playing the sport of baseball. They collect and distribute funds in order to help provide equipment, registration fees, uniforms, field maintenance, travel, and any other costs associated with baseball.

The 16-year-old stresses that "to be good, you had to have and spend way too much money, and money separated the good leagues from the bad. That isn't okay, and I want to do whatever I can to fix it."