Orioles' Adam Jones featured in national Boys and Girls club PSA campaign

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, who has long focused his off-the-field philantrophic work to Baltimore area Boys and Girls clubs, is featured in a national public service announcement with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America that was unveiled on Wednesday.

The PSA was filmed earlier this season at the Brooklyn O'Malley Boys & Girls Club in Baltimore, one of several local clubs that Jones has invested his time and money into.

"I think when they first brought it to me, it was quite surprising due to the fact that there's a lot of players around major league baseball who do a lot of good work with the Boys and Girls Club," Jones said. "I think it's quite humbling, the fact that I grew up in it, me and my brothers and cousins, and then over the last eight years I've been able to give back to the Boys and Girls Club in Baltimore and now San Diego. So, I think it's a pretty good partnership and I think it's a relationship that started when I was four or five and has continued into my 30s."

Growing up in San Diego, Jones was a member of the Encanto Boys & Girls Club and credits the organization for helping prepare him for success. In each of the past three seasons, Jones has donated to help refurnish the buildings. Three years ago, Jones and the Orioles Charitable Foundation donated $75,000 to the Brooklyn O'Malley Boys & Girls Club. The money went toward renovating and expanding the Technology and Learning Center within the Club's facility. In 2014, he donated more than $40,000 to building a new Teen Center for the Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Baltimore, Westport/Winans Homes Center, and last year, $75,000 was donated to the Webster Boys & Girls Club.

"I'm just trying to help where you can help and what I've been able to accomplish between the lines and on the field has been able to catapult a lot of the attention and notoriety," Jones said. "So, I just think it's a good partnership. I never go into things trying to get notoriety for it. I just go into it trying to be that guiding light and try to help out kids and help out communities. This is a good partnership and I think that going forward we should be able to do a lot more, not just for the city of Baltimore but for the city of San Diego."

Jones said it's important that the kids at those clubs see him in person -- he's attended the dedication ceremonies and made other visits to the clubs – so they can see first-hand someone who was in the same situation as them growing up.

"I think the kids understand that it's me in the flesh rather than me as a checkbook or anything like that," Jones said. "When they see me, I tell them, 'Talk to me like I'm one of your friends. Don't put me on any sort of a pedestal. Come and talk to me. I'm human. I'm going to show up in sweats and some [Air] Jordans like all of you look.' I'm there as an innocent bystander, just trying to give back, but in the physical form. I know tons of people who do it financially and I think that's great, also, but I think doing it in the physical form, the kids -- not just the kids, but the community, the parents -- they get to embrace you and see you for who you really are."

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