Rotary Field of Dreams at UNOH Groundbreaking Set for May 12, 2016
Posted on Thursday, April 28, 2016
It is with great pride, that the Allen County Abilities Baseball League announces the official groundbreaking of the Rotary Field of Dreams at UNOH on May 12th at 11:00am. The field will be constructed on the west end of the University of Northwestern Ohio campus behind the Baseball and Soccer fields.
Started in 2003, the Allen County Abilities Baseball League offers children with special needs in Lima and surrounding areas the opportunity to play baseball. The first year, the program worked with 53 children. Each year the league gets bigger and last year reached more than 110 children ages 4-21 in Allen, Putnam, Van Wert, Hardin, Hancock and Auglaize Counties. Currently, the League uses a dirt field and with any amount of rain, play is cancelled due to the safety of the children. This new field will have a fully synthetic turf surface and be handicap accessible to allow for play even following rain events! Having a dedicated field for the Abilities Baseball League will allow the organization the opportunity to include adult leagues as well.
The Abilities Baseball League and the Rotary Field of Dreams at UNOH all started with Rachael Staley, an Early Intervention Specialist with the Allen County Board of Developmental Disabilities. When Staley was a senior in college, she was tasked with creating a service that was needed in the area. At the time, she was interning at Children’s Developmental Center in Lima which works with children with special needs. She noticed that most of the programming available for kids stopped in the summer months, the perfect season for baseball. The Abilities Baseball League was formed and the rest is history!
When asked about her feelings of the field becoming a reality, Staley said, “As our league began to grow, so did our dream, and we saw the need for our own field. This is a place our children can call their own; a field that will meet their needs and where they can feel safe playing. I am so thankful to everyone and every organization that has donated to the Rotary Field of Dreams at UNOH project. I am especially thankful to Rotary and UNOH for stepping up to the plate and allowing this project to become a reality. This will truly be a field of dreams for many children in our area!”
To attend the groundbreaking, please enter the UNOH Campus off of Eastown Road and park in the Overflow parking lot located next to the Tennis Courts. There will be signage directing you to the groundbreaking location.
Category: Campus & Community, Athletics
Keywords: Field of Dreams, Rotary, Baseball
