Yankees, Twins To Announce Partnership For '11 Hope Week Initiatives

The Yankees and Twins, playing a Spring Training game Sunday in Ft. Myers, Fla., will announce during a pregame ceremony a joint partnership for their various Hope Week charitable initiatives. The Twins earlier this week announced plans to stage their first-ever Hope Week June 12-18 in the Twin Cities, replicating the successful weeklong community outreach campaign started by the Yankees in '09 that involved manager Joe Girardi and each member of the team. Yankees personnel will not be in Minnesota during the Twins' Hope Week to aid in operations, but were directly involved in the creation of the Twins' effort.

"We're joining forces, so to speak. It's great to see the idea we started rippling out. The Twins are a great organization that I'm sure will do great things in their community," said Yankees Dir of Media Relations Jason Zillo, a key figure in the formation of the Yankees' Hope Week. The Yankees plan in the coming weeks to announce their own plans for an '11 Hope Week, scheduled for July 25-29. "We're probably ahead in the planning, timewise, where we where compared to the first two years. But we've seen some really powerful, promising stories. I've been blown away," Zillo said.