MINDEMOYA—The Pearson Cup tournament committee, on behalf of a large group of users of the Mindemoya’s baseball fields, are hopeful of receiving funds through the Toronto Blue Jays Care Foundation Field of Dreams grant program to make improvements to the local ball fields.
At a Central Manitoulin council meeting December 15, council gave its approval to provide a letter of support for the Pearson Cup Committee’s Field of Dreams Jays Care Foundation application with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I regularly get a newsletter from the Blue Jays Field of Dreams program, run by the Jays Care Foundation,” said Greg Lockeyer. “They provide funding to non-profit groups across Canada, basically to assist local communities make improvements to facilities and programs.”
Non-profit groups can apply for up to $150,000 Canadian through the funding program. The grants can be applied toward the building of new infrastructure, improving existing spaces to increase programming capacity, overall usage, safety, accessibility and inclusiveness, and/or the provision of capital investment in equipment.
“I approached a large number of groups in the community to see if they were in favour of us trying to tap into this funding,” said Mr. Lockeyer. “They agreed and the proposal has been led by the Pearson’s Cup committee on behalf of all the groups. We have a huge kids ball program in the community, with over 80 plus kids involved; Manitoulin Special Olympics is a big user of our ball fields on a weekly basis and for their annual tournament which brings in about 300 people every year; the Pearson Cup which brings in between 400-450 every year, then there are the Lions events and the recreational ball leagues.”
“We have a good facility but we are looking to do some upgrades,” said Mr. Lockeyer. This includes redoing-resurfacing the outfield and infield with top soil, new bases, new lights, and covered dugouts for the four benches (in the two fields). “For instance the lights at the ball field are 30 years old and can be quite dim,” he said. So the application for funding stresses the safety aspect of making these upgrades to the ball fields in Mindemoya, he pointed out.
“We have passed the first stage of the funding application,” said Mr. Lockeyer. “We put together the costs and project, and now we have to do a second application with much more specifics on what the improvements will cost. We have quotes for the work and have to submit them.”
“I mentioned in the application that our fields are in such great shape because of the volunteers who help to maintain and run them,” continued Mr. Lockeyer. He noted the municipality pays some of the costs of hydro and cuts the grass, the users-volunteers who use the fields do the rest of the work.
“Now we need letters from all those groups and the municipality in support of our application,” said Mr. Lockeyer. “I stressed in the application that because of the usage of the fields we can’t afford to shut them down. We are hopeful of getting some funding.”
Through the Field of Dreams grants program, Jays Care Foundation has invested over $8.15 million toward the creation of 78 safe spaces for children and youth including the refurbishment and/or creation of 44 baseball diamonds across Canada.
