Southwest University Park held its first event Friday night

Friday night Southwest University Park didn’t have a triple-a baseball game but Ciudad Nueva wanted to score a home run.

“This is really an opportunity to spread the word draw in new people. It’s a fund raising event so we would love to raise a lot of money to be able to run all our youth programs, family support programs and draw in new volunteers, new money and just provide exposure,” said executive director Sami Di Pasquali

Di Pasquali said Cuidad Nueva is celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary.

“We started with one church, St. Clements church a long time ago. We are a faith- based group and now we work with a lot of churches. We want to bring together businesses, community members and neighborhood associations,” said Di Pasquali.
The organization provides after school programs, tutoring, and life skills training for students at all levels from elementary to high school.

Ciudad Nueva focuses its efforts on the Rio Grande district.

“77% of the kids there are at risk of not finishing high school. What we want to do is come around every child from when there in third grade all the way to high school and beyond and see that reality change,” said Di Pasquali.

Ciudad Nueva provided some entertainment for the night.

They held a home run derby that included some local home town celebrities.

Di Pasquali said it’s the talent of the kids that needs to be recognized.

“Ultimately we want to see the community transform where every kid is graduating from high school and has a successful future,” said Di Pasquali.

ABC-7 did ask Ciudad Nueva how much they paid to rent out the venue and they didn’t want to disclose that expense.

Ballpark officials say that the money received to rent the venue goes towards operational costs of the park.