Fixing the fence, replacing panels and covering up the dugouts - that’s how over $30,000 in funding from the Toronto Blue Jays will be spent at the Creighton ball diamond.
In total, the Town of Creighton and Creighton Recreation and Tourism will receive $30,685 from the Jays Care Foundation to improve the field. The Blue Jays, through the team’s Jays Care Foundation and the Field of Dreams program, announced August 21 that the Creighton ball diamond would be one of 12 ballparks that will see funds for fixes. In total, the foundation will fund over $1.1 million in infrastructure projects relating to ballparks across Canada. The Field of Dreams program finances upgrades for local ballparks and minor ball organizations.
The entire project will include replacing or straightening poles on the perimeter fence of the diamond, replacing the fence mesh and installing a new safety capping on the top of the outfield fence. The field formerly had a yellow plastic safety cap along the entire top of the outfield fence. New covered dugouts will also be built.
The new $30,685 in funding will be used along with a $2,000 grant from the Northern Neighbours Foundation for the project, received last year.
The field has remained mostly unused over the summer as the Flin Flon/Creighton Minor Ball season was cancelled due to COVID-19 and the Flin Flon/Creighton Slo-Pitch League played exclusively at Centoba Park. The mesh in the park’s outfield fence has been removed.
A series of work bees involving Flin Flon/Creighton Minor Ball and the Creighton Volunteer Fire Department were held over the summer, with workers placing fill in the dugouts to raise the walking surface and removing and straightening outfield and dugout fence poles.
The Creighton ball diamond is one of four Saskatchewan ballparks to see renovation funds from the Field of Dreams program this summer.
