LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With summer coming soon, the Lake County Sheriff’s Activity League is holding the signups for its annual Junior Giants program.

The free noncompetitive sports and character building program is for children ages 5 to 18, according to Ken Wicks Jr., one of the Sheriff’s Activity League organizers and a Junior Giants commissioner.

Wicks said there will be a signup day on Saturday, May 13, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Gard Street School gym in Kelseyville.

The deadline for signups is May 15, and registration can be done online, Wicks said.

This year’s program runs from June 13 to Aug. 3. Wicks said they will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Mountain Vista Middle School baseball fields in Kelseyville.

Wicks said up to 150 local children participate each season and play on a total of 10 teams: four tee-ball teams, four minor league teams for ages 8 to 10 and two major league teams for ages 11 and up.

The teams have four fields on which to play, with Wicks noting that the Junior Giants just finished getting the tee-ball field fenced.

“We’re doing everything we can to give the kids a real great experience,” he said, noting that most of the children who take part don’t play organized sports. “This is their chance to be a part of a baseball team.”

The Junior Giants is the flagship program of the Giants Community Fund, which was found in 1991.

The fund supports leagues in Northern California, Nevada and Oregon, and provides assistance to targeted community initiatives in the areas of education, health, anti-bullying and violence prevention, according to its Web site.

The Junior Giants program was founded in 1994. The organization reported that today it serves more than 25,000 participants in 90 leagues.

Wicks said the program has grown over the past 20 years to be one of the Sheriff’s Activity League’s main efforts for local youth.

He said it’s about encouragement, and focuses on the four bases of character development: competence, integrity, leadership and teamwork.

“It’s really about character development, community building and the friendships,” Wicks said.

There also are scholarships for the children, with two of the Lake County league’s players recently receiving them, he said. Additionally, Junior Giants includes a reading program.

Last year 11 of Lake County’s Junior Giants were invited to an event in the Bay Area in which each of them was paired for the day with a professional baseball player, Wicks said. Among the pro ballplayers taking part were Giants stars Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner.

“It’s pretty special,” said Wicks. “It’s a real treat, the stuff that they get to do.”

He added, “It’s a heck of a program.”

Wicks said Lake County’s Junior Giants program is consistently ranked in the top 5 percent of leagues statewide.

In addition to the Junior Giants, the Sheriff’s Activity League also hosts boxing, lake kayaking, biking, rock climbing, leadership, life skills, sewing, cooking, social skills and theater workshops, led by local volunteers.

They group recently brought voice-over artist and motivational speaker to the Lakeport Unified School District, where he gave three presentations to elementary, middle and high school students, as Lake County News has reported.

In 2013 and 2015 the Junior Giants program also was responsible to helping to bring the San Francisco Giants' World Series trophies to Lake County.

In addition to recruiting children to participate, the Junior Giants program is always looking for adult volunteers interested in mentoring the youngsters. Wicks said they don’t have to be ballplayers, just people interested in working with children who pass the organization’s background check process.

For more information, visit the Sheriff’s Activity League Web site or its Facebook page, visit www.juniorgiants.org , or call Commissioner Dan Camacho at 707-349-2484.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.