Clint Greenbaum Makes Life's Mission to Pay ‘Miracle’ Forward

Story by Lisa Finn

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When Clint Greenbaum’s son Jake was only 3 months old, he and his wife, Elisa, got the news that no parents should ever have to hear —  their baby had a malignant brain tumor.
“He had major brain surgery and then chemotherapy, but he was very lucky — he survived. Most don’t,” Greenbaum said. “He’s an absolute miracle. We call him our miracle boy.”

In the years that passed, Jake, now 21 years old and unable to speak, developed a love of baseball games — something that inspired Greenbaum to pay his good fortune forward by co-founding of Seats of Dreams, a national nonprofit launched in 2012 that gives donated sports and entertainment tickets to disadvantaged, disabled or sick children.

“It’s always a great thing to be able to find an asset that someone doesn’t want and create value out of it for someone else,” Greenbaum said. 

Originally, his intent was to sell donated seats to raise money for the Making Headway Foundation, an organization he co-founded to help those with brain tumors.

But eventually, Greenbaum realized that many individuals with tickets they couldn’t use were selling them online instead.

“We take the tickets and instead of selling them, give them to deserving children who can’t afford to go to these kinds of events,” Greenbaum said. 

One team, the Tampa Bay Rays, he said, embraced the program immediately and donates unsold tickets to their home games, as many as 30 tickets for each game. Individuals can donate tickets up until an hour before the game. 

“The Tampa Bay Rays have been terrific,” Greenbaum said; the team has promoted the Seats of Dreams program on their website and through tweets. “We’re hoping to copy their model nationwide.”

Since the Seats of Dreams program kicked off last spring, approximately 1600 tickets have been donated — plus about 750 tickets this season — bringing the total to just over 2,300 tickets, with a face value of over $66,000.

But no price can be put on the face of a child who is watching his first-ever baseball game, Greenbaum said. “The most fun thing has been some of the thank-you notes,” Greenbaum said. “These kids are real fans.”

“Thank you so much for the Yankee tickets,” one little boy, Carlos, wrote. “The seats were awesome! Me and my cousin had so much fun. We felt like we were rich. This was my first baseball game, and the best. The Yankees won.”

Greg, 8, wrote, “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”

Seats of Dreams donates tickets to organizations such as the Fresh Air Fund and Big Brothers Big Sisters, so that the seats can be matched with needy, sick, and deserving children, Greenbaum said.

The Fresh Air Fund in New York City recently received about 70 New York Mets tickets — 50 of which were for the Mets’ first Saturday game of the season — and about a dozen New York Yankees tickets, Greenbaum said.

Those who donate receive a tax receipt and a tax deduction for the value of the ticket.

“It’s been great,” Jenny Morganthau, the executive director and spokesperson for the Fresh Air Fund, said. “This gives kids a chance to have an experience they wouldn’t otherwise have had — and it’s particularly nice because the seats are great.”

Receiving the tickets, Morganthau said, “makes our kids feel special. We’re really grateful to Seats of Dreams — it's a wonderful program and we’re grateful to be included as a part of it.”

Seats of Dreams is run entirely by volunteers; there are no overhead operating costs, Greenbaum said.

Not only baseball tickets are donated, Greenbaum said — the organization accepts any ticket donations. So far, they’ve received tickets to the Mets, the Yankees, the New York Giants — the Giants tickets included a “wow” moment, a suite at the stadium for a football game against the New England Patriots — ballet in Atlanta, a Rush concert, the Hampton Classic, the Long Island Ducks and Staten Island’s minor league Yankees team. 

Down the line, Greenbaum hopes for some donations of theater or Broadway tickets. 

In the future, Greenbaum wishes to make it possible to provide kids not only with seats at the games but also snacks such as hot dogs and peanuts, sodas, and souvenirs.

Watching children’s dreams come true, Greenbaum said, has been deeply meaningful. “It’s a thrill,” he said. “Watching a game on TV, it’s not the same. You have to be there to experience it.”