Tonya, Kirby Jr., and Catherine Puckett

When Tonya Puckett was a child, she and her sisters would organize neighborhood carnivals—complete with bobbing for apples—in the backyard of their home in North Minneapolis and give the proceeds to Jerry Lewis’s popular telethon for muscular dystrophy. “Giving to the Jerry Lewis telethon was the thing to do at the time,” Puckett says with a laugh. “But it was also a nice thing for the neighborhood.”

In 1986, when she met and married a young baseball player named Kirby, she continued her giving ways. She became a founding member of the Twins’ Wives Organization with Colleen Brunansky, Mickey Gagne, and other wives, putting on fashion shows to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House and Crisis Nursery. As Kirby’s name grew in the baseball world, Tonya started making one for herself in philanthropic circles as the force behind his popular 8-Ball Invitational—which brought in names such as Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. to raise money for heart surgery for children—and the couple established Puckett Scholars at the University of Minnesota in the midnineties.

Through their highly publicized divorce and Kirby’s untimely death in 2006, Puckett remained steadfast in her commitments. “If there is one thing Kirby’s death taught me, it’s that there is no promise of tomorrow,” she says.

Puckett continues to chair galas and fundraising campaigns in support of causes such as Groves Academy. When she was approached by the Philips Eye Institute—where Kirby received treatment for the glaucoma that eventually ended his baseball career—she saw it as the perfect opportunity to get involved and engage her teenagers, Catherine, seventeen, and Kirby Jr., fifteen. “I try to teach them that it is cool that other people listen to them,” says Tonya. “Kids see them as role models.”

The Pucketts have used their time and money to help promote and open the Kirby Puckett Education Center at the Phillips Eye Institute, which provides screenings and education to low-income patients. Catherine and Kirby Jr. became youth ambassadors, teaching other kids about the importance of eye care. “We are blessed,” says Kirby, as Catherine nods in agreement. “It feels good to help others.” In addition, the kids volunteer at Ames Elementary in St. Paul and for LifeSource (Kirby Sr. was an organ donor).

With the establishment of an endowment fund, which supplements Puckett Scholars, the Pucketts will continue to help University of Minnesota students long into the future. Tonya hopes, and expects, that the kids will continue giving into their adult lives. After all, she says, it is about creating a legacy of hope.

“If you can help one person, that’s all that really matters,” Puckett says, her eyes welling up with tears. “I tell them we’ll never touch as many lives as their father did, but we can try.”