El Centro Day is more than just a trip to Petco Park

Proceeds from discounted ticket sales helps the Mothers and Men Against Gangs Coalition to educate youth across the Imperial Valley

SAN DIEGO, Calif. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - For over a decade, the City of El Centro has worked with the San Diego Padres to provide hundreds of baseball tickets at a slighted discounted rate to people across the desert southwest.

"It's been happening for at least over 14 years now," Management Assistant with the city of El Centro Liz Zarate said. "It's a chance for people across the Imperial Valley to take advantage of a day at the ballpark called El Centro Day."

Discounted tickets are offered to a certain seating section in Petco park.

Anyone who wants to purchase tickets are able to," Zarate said. "We normally sell a couple hundred tickets but this year due to the pandemic we scaled back a little. There are a lot of Padre and Dodger fans here in the valley so that's mainly the interest."

The city always strives to find to a marquee match-up to attend and the tickets are a hot commodity.

"I can't think of a time where we had extra tickets," El Centro council member Edgard Garcia said. "We always have people looking for tickets to the very end."

Four years ago, Yulil Alonso-Garza and the Mother's and Men Against Gangs Coalition got involved.

"The organization was formed when my son, Martin Alberto Garza, same initials, was murdered by a gang member on January 6th, 2013," Alonso-Garza said. "We sell the tickets to have a great day at the ballpark and to celebrate my son's memory. His first love in sports was baseball. Even though at the time our family wasn't entirely padres fans, he loved wearing his Padres hat with the friar on it."

According to Liz Zarate, once MAG got involved, they took off with it.

"Yulil has really taken this and run with it," Zarate said. "I mean her group and expanded the reach far more than we ever did and they make a whole day of it in San Diego as well."

Alonso-Garza says MAG uses some of the profits from the ticket sales to educate and give back to local youth through the literacy program.

"That's only one program," Alonso-Garza said. "We have several programs that we support including the casa kids, we've done a lot of work with CASA in the past."

El Centro Day is more than just a baseball game. It's going to the ballpark surrounded by familiar faces or seated next to someone in your neck of the valley. It's also a time to give back and help the youth throughout Imperial County and the desert southwest.

The city of El Centro and MAG try to get at least two games in at Petco Park each year. This year they are adding a third. August 26th against the defending World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

81 tickets will be available. Anyone interested in purchasing tickets or joining the MAG TEENS team is asked to email Yulil at magcoalition@gmail.com for more more information.

"We're looking for new board members and volunteers as we come out of this pandemic," Alonso-Garza said. "We'll also be starting our recruiting process, this coming school year so that the kids can enroll. We send out a form on our webpage, our FaceBook page.