Before Tuesday’s game at Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox players recognized almost 40 Maine high school students serving as captains of their school’s Action Teams, including four students from Central High School in Corinth.

The students received certificates signed by Jason Varitek, David Ortiz and Alex Cora on behalf of all Major League Baseball players and posed for pictures with Cora behind home plate while their school names were announced over the public address system.

Action Teams are part of a service learning program in which major league players and high school students inspire and train the next generation of volunteers. During the 2007-08 school year, Maine Action Team captains raised awareness about the importance of community involvement among other students in their high schools and organized hundreds of other students to get involved in volunteer activities.

Administered by the Major League Baseball Players Trust and Volunteers of America, the Action Team program encourages young people throughout the United States to volunteer in their communities.

“We have grown this program from three Maine high schools to 10 in one year, and we have even greater interest among schools for the next year and plan to double the program to twenty high schools,” said June Koegel, president and CEO of Volunteers of America Northern New England. “We know that when people begin volunteering in their youth it becomes a lifelong interest. The Action Team program is a tremendous way for students to see that no matter who you are – a high school student or major league ballplayer – we all have a role to play in helping out our communities.”

The students supported fundraising and awareness-building efforts in Maine during the past year including Camp POSTCARD, the Paul Hazelton House, the Homeless Youth program and other programs managed and supported by Volunteers of America.

Central High School captains Ethan Arena, Brittany Cote, Bailey Girvan and Troy O’Bar collected donations to provide 48 disposable cameras for children who attend Camp POSTCARD. They also organized a Spring Clean-Up in which 30 volunteers gave more than 100 hours of service to clean public parks, cemeteries, and sidewalks in all five towns of SAD 64 (Bradford, Corinth, Hudson, Kenduskeag and Stetson).