Before the First Pitch: A's Open Their Doors to Las Vegas Community
Members of the U.S. Army 6th Medical Recruiting Battalion leadership and staff spent part of Sept. 22 with the A’s during an A’s Experience designed to provide a closer look at the organization, its history and its future in Las Vegas.
The visit grew from a conversation several weeks earlier with Stephanie Gaywood, vice president of community relations for the A’s.
It was a simple introduction that quickly turned into a larger conversation about Las Vegas and the importance of community relationships. Gaywood shared how important it is for the A’s to integrate into the community and how much developing partnerships and relationships with organizations already here means to her and the team.
That conversation opened a door.
On Sept. 22, the battalion walked through it.
The A’s welcomed the group for an experience led by their tour guide, Rajan, who took the Soldiers and civilians through the organization’s history and gave them a closer look at the team and what lies ahead as the A’s prepare for their future in Las Vegas.
What could have easily been just another tour didn’t feel like one.
Rajan kept the group engaged throughout the experience, answering questions, sharing the story of the organization and making the visit feel less like a presentation and more like spending time with a future neighbor.
For the Soldiers and civilians of 6th Medical Recruiting Battalion, being part of the Las Vegas community is nothing new.
Over the years, members of the battalion have placed wreaths at veterans’ gravesites through Wreaths Across America, volunteered to clean areas of Southern Nevada’s wetlands, supported volunteer efforts at Allegiant Stadium and participated in other activities throughout the Las Vegas Valley.
Those efforts haven’t always looked the same.
Leaders change. Schedules change. Missions get busy. Some years provide more opportunities to get out into the community than others.
But Las Vegas remains home.
That history is part of what made the A’s willingness to engage with the battalion meaningful.
The A’s are preparing to become one of Las Vegas’ newest neighbors, and much of the attention surrounding their arrival understandably centers on baseball and the new ballpark rising along the Las Vegas Strip.
But becoming part of a community takes more than building a stadium.
It takes relationships.
Throughout the visit, battalion leaders and staff had an opportunity to talk with the A’s team, ask questions and learn more about an organization that is already working to establish roots in Southern Nevada.
At the conclusion of the experience, 6th Medical Recruiting Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Bruce W. Barnes and Command Sergeant Major Michael T. Walsh presented battalion coins to Gaywood and Rajan in appreciation for opening the organization’s doors to the Centurion team. Gaywood had departed early for a flight, so Rajan accepted her coin on her behalf.
The coins were a small gesture, but a fitting end to an engagement that started with something equally simple, a conversation.
The relationship isn’t expected to stop there.
As temperatures cool later this year, plans call for members of the battalion to reconnect with the A’s for a hard-hat tour of the new stadium construction site.
By then, there will be more steel in the air and more visible signs of the A’s future home taking shape.
But a stadium isn’t the only thing being built.
Relationships are, too.
The A’s opened their doors.
The Centurions were happy to walk through them.
And from one Las Vegas organization to another, it was a pretty good way to welcome a new neighbor.
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