Springfield has had a really difficult year. So many killings, so much gun violence. It is overwhelming.
Our community leaders have met many times to try to get a handle on the violence. I’ve heard there was a meeting to broker a peace between gang leaders.
We listen to calls for more police presence and for higher bail amounts to keep violent offenders behind bars – as well as many prayer vigils.
I think we must reach our young people before they turn down the wrong path.
We have known for quite some time about the transformative value of youth sports and organized activities, whether it’s baseball, football or soccer – or the chess, science or math club. Or Scouting or the cheer squad.
What matters is the friendships, mentoring and relationships that bind people together, often for a lifetime. Giving kids an alternative that is positive is what matters.
Springfield has many summer and afterschool programs in place.
The Hope for Youth & Families Foundation is one such program, created by Bob Bolduc, founder of the Pride convenience stores, along with Alison Schoen and “Chili” Salazar.
This program ranges from music education to sports participation and in its first year succeeded 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 are overgrown to the point where only the chainlink backstop indicates there’s a baseball field there at all. Come spring, the parks department needs to fix them, getting rid of weeds in the infield and adding a mix of clay and silt on the dirt portion of the infield. After it rains, these fields need to be maintained by adding more infield mix.
Fields that aren’t maintained are unsafe. For many, many years, a large pile of infield material was stored behind the backstop at many fields. Coaches and umpires would use that material to fill in wherever it was needed. We should go back to that.
Communities surrounding Springfield have safe, well-maintained baseball fields. We should be making this same investment in our city’s kids.
I believe every kid should be able to walk to a nearby park and be able to play baseball. It takes commitment and it takes effort. I think the kids are worth it.
Mark Frodema lives in Springfield.
