:: About Fits Like a Glove Charity ::

Hello, my name is Joe Gilligan. I am co-owner of Akadema and a founding partner of the Fits Like a Glove Charity. My brother Lawrence and I have always loved the game of baseball. As children we grew up playing baseball every chance we got. The game gives young people a glimpse into the spirit of living. There are good games when we are the hero and bad games when we are the goat . However, most games we simply learn about working as a team. Team work helps make us to become better friends, spouses, parents, leaders, teachers, community stewards, employees and employers. Yet some children are relegated to the sideline because of handicaps or simply because of economics.

When we started Akadema in 1997, we wanted a change the game through the advancement of better designed equipment. To this date we have eight U.S. patents which have revolutionized the industry. As we quickly approach our 20th anniversary as a company we want to continue to advance product design but we also want to help those whom have been marginalized and can't get on the field. Since 2003 Akadema has been privately designing expensive one of a kind gloves. These gloves were not made for one of our many notable player endorsements like Derek Holland, Monica Abbott, Manny Ramirez, Bryce Harper or Shane Victorino. They were for the children with hand deformities.

For those who reached out to us to design a special glove we asked our company and its owners be given anonymity. We just didn't have the funds to take on many cases as the gloves were given free of charge. Over the years people did end up leaking information online through chat boards , blogs and articles but who could blame a parent for the joy of seeing their child on the field with their new custom designed glove ? Certainly not me. It was a GAME CHANGER for these children. Even our friend, baseball columnist, John Pinkman convinced us in 2010 to comment in a newspaper article about a glove we built. Yet, for the most part, we did keep our glove donations and specially crafted designs a secret.

However a few years ago one parent who received the glove free was blown away with the generosity and asked if she could donate to our charity to "pay it forward". I told her we didn't have a charity and we did this from our own pocket. She said, "did you ever think you were holding back and could help more children by creating a charity to fund such projects?" I guess we all have teachable moments in life. We applied to the IRS in late 2013 and were accepted in late 2014 for our new charity . We called it, "FITS LIKE A GLOVE. : Well, that name sounds just about right.

Our hope is we can collect donations to produce more of these specialty crafted gloves. We also like to help more teams like the Special Olympics New Jersey baseball Squad which took home the gold. Now that our information about our charity is public we can't do it alone and need your help to make a difference in someone's life. We hope you share our dream and vision to see each child get on the field and reach their greatest potential in baseball and in life.

Thank you for your generosity,

Joe Gilligan
On behalf of Lawrence Gilligan, Kris Totten, and the Fits Like a Glove Charity Foundation.