Date: 10/11/2023
Springfield has had a really difficult summer to say the least.
Too many killings, too much violence. It is overwhelming.
Our community leaders from the Mayor’s office, church leaders, the police department and many other concerned citizens have met many times to try to get a handle on the violence. I’ve heard that there was a meeting to broker a peace between gang leaders.
There are calls for more police presence, there are calls for higher bail amounts to keep violent offenders behind bars. And there have been many prayer vigils.
Our leaders are doing their part to help.
I think we should also be trying to reach our young people before they turn down the wrong path.
We have known for quite some time about the importance and the transformative value of youth sports and organized activities.
Whether it’s baseball, football, soccer, or it might be the chess club, the math club, scouting, the science club or the cheer squad.
What matters is the lifelong friendships, the mentorships, the relationships that bind people together, often for a lifetime. Giving kids an alternative that is positive is what matters.
Springfield has many summer and after school programs already in place.
Hope for Youth and Families is one such program that was created this past spring and summer. Created by Bob Bolduc, founder of Pride Convenience stores, along with Alison Schoen, and ‘Chili’ Salazar.
This program ranged from music education, to sports participation, and in its first year, it was a great success in serving many kids.
Springfield is blessed in that it has many parks with baseball and athletic fields. However,most of the baseball fields are not maintained, and most of them are overgrown to the point where only the chainlink backstop indicates that there’s a baseball field there at all. The baseball fields are there, but in the early spring, the Parks Department needs to fix them.
Getting rid of the weeds in the infield, and then add a mix of clay and silt on the dirt portion of the infield. And then, after it rains, the fields need to be maintained by adding more infield mix. Fields that aren’t maintained all suffer from the dirt being eroded away,making the fields unplayable and unsafe. For many, many years a large pile of infield material was stored behind the back stop, and the coaches and umpires would use it to fill in wherever it was needed, we should go back to that.
All the towns surrounding Springfield have safe, well maintained baseball fields. We should be making this same investment in our city’s kids.
I believe that every kid should be able to leave his house and walk to a nearby park,and at the very least have the opportunity to play baseball.
It takes commitment and it takes effort, but I think the kids are worth it.
Mark Frodema
Springfield
