St. Michael’s graduates Danny Divis and Justin McKenzie (both 2017) have been invited to throw out ceremonial first pitches at Fenway Park on Saturday, Aug. 5, when the homestanding Boston Red Sox take on the Chicago White Sox at 7:10 p.m. EDT.
The game will be broadcast live on NESN.
Co-winners of the 2017 Hockey Humanitarian Award and co-creators of mental health awareness campaign Hope Happens Here, Divis and McKenzie will deliver the ceremonial pitches on Vermont Day at the historic ballpark just minutes before game time. Every year, the Red Sox honor each of the six New England states with their own theme night at Fenway.
As juniors in 2015-16, the duo co-founded HHH, a campus organization which they tout on their social media channels as a movement dedicated to “removing the stigma of mental health issues on college campuses.” They continued to spread their message this past school year, adding members while holding awareness events at sporting events such as basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse and soccer, and raising thousands of dollars for one of their favorite charities, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA). Divis and McKenzie were lauded with the Hockey Humanitarian Award on April 7, becoming the annual accolade’s first co-recipients.
A St. Michael’s student-athlete last threw the first pitch at Fenway Park on May 5, 1999, when members of the 1999 NCAA Division II tournament championship men’s hockey team were on hand prior to the Red Sox taking on the Texas Rangers. Chris Davidson, a captain of the only national champion squad in college history, tossed the first pitch. That ball and a Red Sox jacket signed by shortstop Nomar Garciaparra – who homered during the game – are still on display in the Purple Knights’ trophy case in the Ross Sports Center lobby.
