The Jewish Community Center in Overland Park. Photo: JCCKC.

For the seventh year running, Kansas City Royals have partnered with the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park for a three-day youth baseball camp.

A total of 120 campers will go through four days of drills and skill training, and learn from some of the Royals’ coaching staff this week at the “‘C’ You in the Major Leagues” youth camp. The Royals began hosting the camp following the 2014 deadly shooting at the Jewish Community Center and nearby Village Shalom, in which a gunman killed three people.

“Every year I get to tell this story to our front office, to our interns, to our counselors of why we’re here. It helps put a lot of things in perspective in life,” said Royals General Manager Dayton Moore, who founded the “C” You In the Major Leagues Foundation in January 2014. He added, “What I love about our togetherness here and our partnership with the ‘J’ is just the innocence of the kids. It kind of reminds us why we do this.”

“It’s always been our mindset: How can we grow the baseball and softball in our community? So it’s just using our gifts to give back, partner with this great community here at the Jewish Community Center,” Moore said.

Moore told reporters on Monday, “We’re getting ready to have the draft July 11, and one of the things that we constantly ask ourselves, each other about players we’re looking to acquire is, do they have a lot of little boy in them? Do they love to play baseball? This is a healthy reminder of why we do this.”