The Boyne City Little League is looking to make a big change to their beloved field.
“This field has kind of been the icon of little league for many, many years,” said Nikki Wormell. “But if we can’t make some drastic improvements, this field is not going to be playable.”
The Little League leased the field in 1961, and started playing baseball and softball games there in 1965.
But now, the field is in need of a major remodel.
“The whole field needs to be taken down, all the fencing needs to be replaced, the score booth is literally rotting on its foundations,” said Al Aown. “Our goal is to build a field that’s more useable, more flexible, and we want it to be the crown jewel of baseball in northern Michigan on top of that.”
A group of Boyne City residents and Little League board members got together to create “The Waterfront Field of Dreams” committee.
“Every kid dreams of playing on a big stadium style field,” said Wormell. “That’s kind of where we came up with Waterfront Field of Dreams.”
One of the biggest improvements the committee wants to make is install artificial turf.
“When it rains, it can take hours or even days to be playable again and take a lot of work and maintenance to basically drain the field, get the water off the field, put dirt in the holes,” said Aown. “With an artificial turf stadium field, literally rain you give it half and hour, and hour to dry, and potentially you could be playing again.”
The group received backing from the city, parks and recreation, and from the city commission to move forward with this project.
Now they’re ready to start accepting donations from the community.
“It’s going to be a community driven approach,” said Aown. “We’re not asking for any taxes, nothing like that, it’s all by donation.”
The group’s goal is $800,000 to $1.1 million, and they want to start breaking ground on construction this coming spring.
“It’s a big project, but ideally it’s going to make this field huge,” said Wormell. “It’s going open up the possibilities of who can play down here, it’s going to create it for both boys and girls, it’s going to create it so even adults could play down here.”
This isn’t just a passion project for the members of the committee, it’s a personal one too. Wormell played softball on the field, and passed the love of the game to her kids.
“This is something that my kids get to look back on and say, ‘You know my mom helped make this happen’ and that’s a big deal for me,” said Wormell.
To donate, you can contact the Boyne City Little League Facebook page, or head to their Waterfront Field of Dreams Facebook group to find out more information.
The Link LonkFebruary 25, 2021 at 05:39PM
https://www.9and10news.com/2021/02/25/boyne-city-little-league-to-start-fundraising-for-waterfront-field-of-dreams/
Boyne City Little League to Start Fundraising for Waterfront Field of Dreams - 9 & 10 News - 9&10 News
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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