Former Ravens WR Torrey Smith takes on new role with West Baltimore recreation center

Former Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith has partnered with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks to run the programming at the long-closed Hilton Recreation Center, he announced Tuesday.

Smith founded the Level82 fund (formerly the Torrey Smith Family Fund) with his wife, Chanel, which aims to “leverage the power of community collaboration” to help Baltimore families. Reginald Moore, executive director of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, said in a video announcing the partnership at the West Baltimore center that has been closed since 2008.

“We’re back to doing what we would truly feel like we were born to do, which is to help the community," said Torrey Smith, a Maryland graduate who won a Super Bowl while playing for the Ravens from 2011 to 2014. “It’s something that, I’m not going to lie, we’re a little nervous about. But we’re excited about the responsibility to help others and to be hands-on with the community and helping to change the community one family and one individual at a time.”

Smith has long been active in the Baltimore community, and he wrote on Twitter that he’d been working on becoming more involved since retiring from the NFL last year. Smith said Tuesday that he will be a regular presence at the Hilton Recreation Center, and he plans to enroll his children in some of its programs.

“They could have chosen many places to go to renovate a rec center, but they chose Baltimore, and that means a lot to our agency," Moore said. "It means a lot to our community.”

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