Pete & Haley Alonso Launch Homers for Heroes Foundation

Shortly after Pete Alonso won the 2019 Home Run Derby, making good on his promise to donate 10 percent of his winnings to the nonprofit organizations Tunnel to Towers and the Wounded Warrior Project, he had a chance to see the effect of his work. Representatives from both organizations came to Citi Field, as well as the recipients of Alonso’s generosity -- right there in the flesh, in front of his eyes. The scene, for both Alonso and those he helped, was emotional.

From that point forward, Alonso craved the idea of doing more, but he wasn’t sure how best to focus his philanthropy. Months later, he and his fiancée, Haley Walsh, were still mulling that problem when the solution struck them.

“Basically, it was like, ‘Well, why do we need to focus on one specific thing?’” Alonso recalled Wednesday in a phone interview. “And the answer to that was, ‘We don’t.’ We just want to help as many people as possible. … We want to be fluid with the world around us.”