For the third year in a row, the Ames Police Department will accompany close to 25 children from the Boys and Girls Club of Ames to Tuesday’s Iowa Cubs game in Des Moines.

“It’s just a good time and it gives them a better chance to get to know us more personally,” said Tom Shelton, community resource officer at the Ames Police Department.

Shelton said the event started as a way to encourage relationships between police and youth in the community.

“[The Ames Police Department] would like to establish the friendship between us and the Boys and Girls Club and just let people know it is a positive place for kids,” he said. “We do a lot of stuff with them and for them.”

Shelton said he purchases the tickets out of his own pocket every year. He calls it his “yearly donation.”

Shelton said he coordinates the trip, arranges for other police officers to go, and makes the arrangements with the I-Cubs staff.

Marty Lester, program director at the Boys and Girls Club of Ames, makes the arrangements with the youth, which range from 7- to 18-years old.

“It’s to more or less give our members a chance to attend an event that they otherwise would not be able to do because of time or financial considerations,” Lester said.

“I like the Cubs and I wanna see them play,” said Brandon Chambers, one of the youth who signed up for the trip this year.

“Baseball is the national pastime, so everybody is always geared up to go watch a game,” Shelton said.

He said several staff members from the Boys and Girls Club and two or three officers will chaperone the trip.

Shelton said the youth get a warm welcome from the I-Cubs and usually participate in many of the contests for the fans between innings.

“They usually get a kid out there to throw the first pitch, play the golf game and do the trivia question,” he said.

He said they might also get one of the officers to read the question.

Lester said he loves to do things like this with the kids because it makes them so happy.

“Every once in a while the kids will get an autograph,” he said. “The smiles, that’s what it’s all about.”

He said any Boys and Girls Club member can go on the trip as long as they sign up and agree to have a positive attitude.

The Ames Boys and Girls Club has around 1,600 members, Lester said, adding that their building, on South 5th St., buzzes with more than 100 boys and girls each day.