Student organizations are bringing a new ballgame to the Kenilworth neighborhood in Northeast D.C. in an effort to build community through sports.

D.C. Reads, which had long been tutoring at Kenilworth Elementary, had tried to renovate the neighborhood’s Little League field last spring, but it soon became clear that the project required a longer-term commitment.

In the fall, Students of Georgetown, Inc.’s Service and Outreach Committee became involved with the Kenilworth Recreation Center.

CSOC has funded and designed basketball jerseys for teams at the recreation center and organized a group outing of Georgetown students to watch the Kenilworth team play. Committee members will also be planting flowers, landscaping and painting a mural at the recreation center Friday as part of The Corp’s 40th anniversary celebration, and they also plan to hold an event celebrating the community in mid-April.

“We see building a relationship with the coaches and student-athletes of Kenilworth as just as important as delivering on projects like providing jerseys and improving athletic facilities. It’s about connecting to those to whom we’re giving,” Committee Chair Will Cousino (SFS ’12) said.

The committee’s main goal this semester has been to renovate the local baseball field.

“Community members believed that a baseball diamond could become an epicenter of Kenilworth,” said D.C. Reads Coordinator Hannah Klusendorf (COL ’12), who was also a member of CSOC.

For committee member and project leader Alexandra Rallo (COL ’15), the partnership between The Corp and the Kenilworth neighborhood is a means for the company to include other student groups, like Hoyas for RBI, in its outreach and service projects.

Hoyas for RBI, a new Georgetown branch of Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, seeks to mentor children through the game of baseball.

“D.C. RBI draws from the Kenilworth community and the surrounding area, and we are excited about the opportunity to work with The Corp to help out there,” Hoyas for RBI Founder and President Alexander Frawley (COL ’12) said.

According to Klusendorf, the collaborative aspect of this project makes it unique.

“Service and outreach imply this intersection of people and ideas,” she said. “When we, Hoyas — in all of our diverse talents, skills and even weaknesses — come together, we can do big things, things bigger than ourselves.”