(by
Burt Wilson –
What started out as a pipe dream is
now a reality. Tonight, following a
dedication ceremony that begins at
The
stadium lights are the result of a project by the Dugout Club, a booster
association for the
“It
kind of almost started as a joke,” Dugout Club president Steve Brody
said. “We were wondering, what can
we do for our next project? A number of
us were talking and it was, ‘gee, let’s put up
lights?’”
But
the group was only somewhat serious.
Because the financial considerations for the lights were as high as
$175,000, installing lights was as likely as putting a dome over the
field. So it seemed starlight would
continue to be the only thing illuminating the Township field.
However, the ingenuity, hard work
and luck of the Dugout Club should not be underestimated. Brody and Township coach Bill Sassaman began
to gather information. They talked to other
community groups who had erected lights and they began to form a plan – a
plan that they believed would take about five years of fund raising before they
could start the project.
“The
difficulty in doing something like this is, if it’s a parent’s
group organization that’s fund raising, parents’ groups will raise
money for five years and their sons will graduate, and even the freshmen that
would be involved from day one wouldn’t see the immediate
benefit,” Sassaman said. “So from that standpoint, I honestly
though it would never get done.”
But
the project did get done and in just over a year. “To make a long story short, we got
very lucky,” Brody said.
Brody
heard that the Old Guard Insurance Group, in celebration of their 100th
year, wanted to do “something lasting” for the community. Brody and Sassaman made a proposal to Old
Guard president Dave Hosler that his company pay the $60,000 cost of the poles
and the lights.
Hosler,
who has done some coaching in the Township Midget League and has a son in the
program, took the idea to his board and they approved it.
They
now had the money for the lights, but that still left the cost of
construction. Brody talked to the public
affairs officer of the Air National Guard at Indiantown Gap and found out the
Guard does two projects a year, such as installing lights at a municipal
field. The Dugout Club made a request
and after it was approved, the Guard spent weekends last summer in Neffsville
helping to install lights.
Many
other necessities just fell into place.
Engineering
plans were done by Jim Hackman of Parfitt-Ling, the school district’s
engineering firm. They charged about
half the going rate and the school picked up half of that so the Dugout Club
paid about one-quarter of what would have been full price.
John
Kassees, owner of American Testing Labs, did the core samples for free.
The
lights arrived in July, but were not needed until October. A local company stored them for free. A local law firm provided pro bono legal
services.
Many
tons of concrete and rebar were acquired at cost. Piles of sand and stone were donated.
Scott
Cover, president of Line Specialties Inc., served as a consultant. “Any construction that was a little bit
sophisticated or needed some special equipment, his company participated in
that and he charged us absolutely the bare bones for that,” Brody
said. “His advice and his guidance
and his supervision. I can’t put a
value on that. We couldn’t have
done it without him.”
But
the biggest contribution, according to both Brody and Sassaman, was the labor
of the National Guard and the parents.
The parents provided two meals a day for the Guard each weekend. “It was like a contest. The parents would take turns and they (the
Guard) admitted they never ate better at one of these projects.”
Parents
of the players and members of the Dugout Club – Ed Swoboda, Wayne Peters,
Glenn Stigelman, and Tom Murse – put in long hours. “They were there daily,” Sassaman
said. “They are very knowledgeable
handymen and just the little things we needed, the little minor construction
things that we could do such as some of the electrical wiring and maybe nailing
boards, putting a foundation together, they took care of that.”
Although
not a member of the Dugout Club, “John Erb was responsible for the
foundations that went into the preparing and pouring of cement the week the
cement was going to be poured and just donated all that time and labor,”
Sassaman said. Erb was a community
member who wanted to help out and it is not just the high school but the
community that will benefit from the field.
“That
was one of the considerations when we started this whole thing,” Brody
said. “We felt in some ways it
would touch nearly every kid who plays baseball for decades.
“We
want to really turn it into a source of good, wholesome entertainment for the
community throughout the summer.
It’s a time when there’s no school, kids are looking for
something to do and if we can get them to a ball game instead of whatever else
they might be doing, that would be good.”
In
addition to the scholastic teams, an American legion team, two midget league
teams and Twilight League teams will use the field.
For Brody, this
is his second year as president of the Dugout Club. “Manheim Township baseball has been
very, very good for my family, for the character of my kids,” Brody said. “Just the quality way the program is
run, it’s just a tremendous tribute to him (Sassaman). And every now and then it is time to give
something back to something that’s given so much to you.”