The town of McCreary is set to get a boost when it comes to baseball in the community.
Thanks to a grant from the Toronto Blue Jays' Jays Care Foundation, McCreary will be receiving an undetermined amount of money to build two brand new ball diamonds which will also give more athletes in the area an opportunity to play the game as they grow up.
Back in October, the McCreary Minor Baseball Association submitted their application and on Sunday, May 2, the sports association in McCreary found out they were a winner of the grant. McCreary is one of 15 sports infrastructure projects throughout the country that will be getting a boost as Jays Care is setting aside more than $1.5 million dollars to fund the projects.
Nearly 100 avid baseball fans showed up to the McCreary Golf & Country Club on Sunday to catch the Jays game and it was during that game when McCreary was announced as a winner alongside 14 other sports organizations from coast to coast.
Marc Hazelwood says winning the grant is a huge deal and the support from the community has been outstanding.
"It was pretty neat to hear our little town get announced live on a national broadcast," said Hazelwood. "Everyone was hootin', hollerin', and cheering pretty loud, it was pretty neat to be a part of."
The new fields will be constructed on the property right beside the Country Club and phase one includes two brand-new diamonds. The ultimate goal is to build another diamond while also adding a canteen.
The new diamonds will also allow the association to create teams at the U15 and U18 levels. With their current diamonds, they aren't big enough to have teams in that age group. And with baseball taking off in the Parkland, Hazelwood says this news could not come at a better time.
"Baseball has seen a bit of a revival in McCreary and across the region, we're starting to see a jump in numbers and I know other areas are as well," offered Hazelwood. "For us to be able to provide another space for kids of all ages to use and play some ball is wonderful, we're extremely excited about it."
Construction on phase one of the project is expected to begin in the coming weeks and Hazelwood is hopeful that the new diamonds will be ready to go come next spring. Meanwhile, outside of McCreary, the other Manitoba community to get a piece of the $1.5 million from Jays Care is the Dakota Plains First Nation, who will be using the funds to install new lights on their local diamond.