The Binghamton (N.Y.) Rumble Ponies minor league baseball team recently donated the proceeds from auctioned game-used jerseys to help a Care Net-affiliated pregnancy center. It was a homerun for the Courageous Choices Men’s Program at Life Choices Center in Binghamton.

The Courageous Choices Men’s Program has two main purposes: “to support, encourage, and mentor young fathers as they experience the joys and challenges of parenthood” and “to educate and empower young men before they become fathers to make wise decisions in life.”

The Rumble Ponies, the AA affiliate of the New York Mets, donated uniforms used when the team played the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in early August. The weekend series was part of the city of Binghamton’s weekend Spiedie Fest celebration.

In an article at BinghamtonHomePage.com, Matthew Solomon, the Men’s Program Director at Life Choices, said “Our services and resources help men to be the best version of themselves.” The Courageous Choices program seeks to provide education and resources not only for men, but for “their families, their partners and children, and not just for this generation but for generations to come.”

Alexander Hettinga, Care Net’s Senior Manager of Fatherhood and Family Programming, visited Life Choices this summer and was impressed with the impact of Courageous Choices.

“On my site visit, I attended a minor league baseball game with dads from their program and their stories blew me away,” he said. 

Hettinga also noted how Life Choice’s men’s program is offering valuable training to men as a member of Care Net’s 2023 Fatherhood Project.

“This center is the smallest one in our Fatherhood Project (just a couple of full-time staff and one location) but is leading the whole pack with DoctorDad graduates,” he said.

DoctorDad is a six-hour, interactive online course that has immediate practical applications. Men learn concepts such as how to care for a pregnant partner, how to calm a crying baby, the importance of skin-to-skin contact, child nutrition, how to take a temperature, and gun safety. The course also offers in-depth teaching on topics like compassion, suffering, anger, and patience through a brief devotional at the end of each step.

As the director of Courageous Choices, Matthew Solomon envisions life transformation for every man he encounters at the center. No one is past redemption. Solomon’s incredible testimony was featured in a 2022 Care Net article: Remaking Men by God's Redemptive Grace: The Matthew Solomon Story.

“I’ll never forget what I learned at the Care Net Men’s Conference when Tony Evans said, ‘Do you want a better world? Then make a better man…one man at a time’,” recalled Solomon. “Where the world sees a washed out and wasted life, we see each father’s true potential and work to bring it out…With the right help and discipleship, these men will realize their true identity in Christ and reach their highest potential. And that’s when lasting change happens—in the family, the church, the community, and eventually the world!”