SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Padres pitcher Jason Adam is using his strikeouts to help families in crisis through Olive Crest, a nonprofit organization that supported local mother Karen Raya through homelessness and domestic violence.
Raya became a mother at age 17 during her senior year of high school. She faced housing instability, couch surfing, and relationship struggles that ended in domestic violence.
"I had no one to lean on. I just took it upon myself to do the best that I can, and since I never was shown support or helped as a child, I didn't know on the other end how to ask for help and then how to receive it," Raya said.
Raya struggled to provide for her two children while navigating the gap between earning too much for county assistance and not having enough to survive.
"With my two children, my youngest being a newborn, I went couch surfing, renting rooms, and eventually I was able to get these jobs that provided. But when you are in the middle class, you're told that you make too much for us to help you like the county, but then you didn't have enough to survive," Raya said.
Juggling all the responsibilities herself made it challenging to be present for her children.
"I was falling through the cracks with my mental health as well as my kids," Raya said.
"There were times where I would fall asleep first and then wake up and be like, ' Oh my god, did we eat, or just being exhausted, I could be there to maybe do homework with them," Raya said.
Her situation changed when she connected with Olive Crest, an organization focused on preventing child abuse and helping families in crisis. Through the nonprofit, Raya accessed programs like short-term emergency child care.
"An amazing family would help take care of my kids, show them love, give them a chance to just you know be with people who are there to engage and present," Raya said.
Olive Crest relies heavily on donations and receives significant support from Adam. For every strikeout the pitcher threw, his family donated the cost to host a child in crisis.
"We live in a beautiful city for a host of reasons, and it's easy to accidentally turn a blind eye and not even realize what's going on. So part of it is getting the word out," Adam said.
"It gained a lot of traction, and it brought questions for them, brought a lot of visibility to the problem that they're trying to solve," Adam said.
As a father of five, Adam said the mission sits heavy on his heart.
"When you have kids in your life every day, hearing that there are kids who are just as innocent, just as sweet, and entitled to a good, healthy life, they're not getting it. They're getting robbed of their identity. They're getting told that they don't matter," Adam said.
"When you grow up, you assume everybody has the same things you have, and then you start to see that's not the reality, so that's heartbreaking," Adam said.
While Raya has not had the chance to thank Adam and his family personally, she said their support has given her family strength as they continue healing.
"There are people out there who see a cause, and they jump in and help out. I think it just speaks volume of their heart," Raya said.
"I know our lives individually and collectively wouldn't been in a very dark place because I was on that path," Raya said.
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