The San Diego Padres will honor a senior at La Jolla Country Day School before Monday night’s interleague game against the Houston Astros at Petco Park as the first recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Comunidad Award for the 2015 season.
Niki Mani founded a nonprofit organization, Stop Diabetic Blindness, as a sophomore after shadowing doctors in a retina eye clinic and seeing the need for free, regular eye treatments as preventative care to diabetic blindness.
Mani has raised $400,000 in donated supplies and services to help provide free monthly clinics treating 40-60 predominately Latino uninsured patients per month.
Mani was honored in the field of youth health. Nominations for the season’s three other awards in children’s education; youth baseball, softball or youth fitness; and supporting the law enforcement and military communities can be made at padresbeisbol.com/comunidad (English nominations can be made by pressing the English nomination button.)
—City News Service