APRIL 2001

President's Message

News & Information

IT’S TIME TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE

Baseball (and softball!) is woven into the fabric of America, and that’s very evident in the Springfield community. Most if not all of us around the area understand the value of kids playing these great sports and having quality facilities, good coaching, reliable equipment etc. We’ve reached a point where it’s necessary to upgrade our program and facilities, so we initiated a sponsorship campaign to begin raising money specifically for this purpose.

The initial response to the sponsorship fund raising letters we recently mailed to all S.Y.A.A. families and area businesses has been terrific! As of this writing we’ve received 16 contributions totaling $2,240, so we’re off to a good start. Very soon we’ll start calling on large businesses in the Metro Omaha area to sell them on our organization and seek their financial support as well. But the heart of the effort must beat right here in southern Sarpy County.

We serve about 170 families in the Springfield community with our diamond sports and football programs, and over 200 boys and girls will participate in baseball, softball and teeball this season. At this early stage in the fund raising campaign, we’ve received contributions from 10 families, and we’re grateful for their generous support. We’ll need every family’s support if we hope to make an impact on our program and facilities this season.

We all have a stake in our diamond sports program, and we all need to step up to the plate this month and take a swing. Some of us will get base hits, while others will hit home runs. But the size of individual contributions, whether it’s five dollars or five thousand dollars or more, isn’t nearly as important as each of us recognizing the value and importance of this fund raising effort, and taking action to insure its success. Then at some point in the future we can all take pride in what we accomplished together and the good we’ve done for the kids and the program.

We’re currently working with Springfield city officials on a number of improvements at the City Park field, including the installation of an outfield fence and gates, dirt work on the infield, and the possible installation of lights. While the lights may not become a reality this season, the other improvements are very attainable and will be a significant enhancement to a nice place to play and watch games. We want to get some additional dirt work done at our other fields this year too.

The more funds we raise this month, the more we can get done for this season. I hope every family affiliated with S.Y.A.A. will accept the challenge to participate in this key fund raising effort at a level they can afford. Let’s work hard together to go 170 for 170 at the plate and brag about a perfect batting average of .1000 for this fund raising season. Then we can sit back and enjoy the results and anticipate others as we watch our kids take the field in 2001.

Batter up!

Frank Staskiewicz, Jr

President