Photograph by Jonathan Pollack
People laughed when a squirrel interrupted play during Game 3 of the 2011 National League Division Series. Then, when a squirrel ran across home plate during Game 4—and the Cardinals went on to beat the Phillies to win the division—the Rally Squirrel was born.
Dan Buck, executive director of the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation, immediately knew the Rally Squirrel was the perfect symbol for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center. “We saw it as a great opportunity to encourage our kids to rally from their illness and their injuries,” he says.
Before the fifth game of the NLDS, Buck pitched his idea: to host a fundraiser with Rally Squirrel memorabilia. Commercial artist Ron Baechle—better known as the Towel Man at Blues hockey games—designed the cartoon logo, and local companies donated merchandise and time.
The project started on a Friday. By the following Monday, 12-year-old Lauren Lee, a Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor and Cardinal Glennon ambassador, was holding a press conference about it. By the time the Cardinals won the franchise’s 11th World Series title in October, the foundation had sold around 31,000 T-shirts and announced that proceeds were going toward a playground on hospital grounds.
Now situated above the Bob Costas Cancer Center, the Rally Squirrel playground includes putting greens, a rock-climbing wall, and a flat-screen TV for playing interactive video games. The ground is covered in padded flooring, and the park’s centerpiece is a large tree with the Rally Squirrel in front. There’s even a mailbox where kids leave Rally messages.
Left fielder Matt Holliday was on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. A patient’s father approached Buck afterward. “He said, ‘It means so much to see my daughter be able to play with her siblings and be able to get outdoors despite her sickness,’” he recalls.
The hospital continues to sell shirts online, supporting Homers for Health, a new project co-chaired by Holliday and David Freese. Fans pledge to contribute a certain amount for every home run that the Cardinals hit, and proceeds go to support nutrition and fitness programs for kids.
