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The Equity

From left: MoP Director General Benedikt Kunn, Community Life Coordinator Megan Lewis and Mayor Joanne Labadie celebrate the announcement that the Luskville Recreation Park is set to get a big boost from the Toronto Blue Jays. The Major League Baseball team announced that the park is set to get a $150,000 investment from the Jays Care Foundation which aims to build safe spaces for children to play baseball and develop life skills.

Chris Lowrey
LUSKVILLE April 17, 2018
The Toronto Blue Jays have picked the Luskville Recreation Park to receive a $150,000 grant to refurbish the lighting at the ball diamond, among other things.
The donation was announced on April 17 during the Blue Jays broadcast.
Luskville is one of 16 Canadian communities to be awarded the grant.
“It’s extremely exciting,” said Municipality of Pontiac Recreation and Community Life Co-ordinator Meghan Lewis. “We were surprised.”
The municipality heard about the Jays Care Foundation and the grants they have given out in the past.
The grant was given through the Blue Jays’ charitable arm known as the Jays Care foundation. More specifically, the money came out of the Field of Dreams program.
The goal of the Field of Dreams program is to provide funding to “design, refurbish and build safe spaces for children and youth to play baseball, develop life skills and learn from positive role models.”

Over the last 10 years, the Jays Care Foundation has donated $8.15 million to communities.
The Luskville Recreation Park project is the only one in Quebec this year. The municipality of Chelsea also applied.
The municipality made the first application in October. By December, staff were notified that they had made it to the second round.
In 2016, the municipality held a public consultation on the future of the Luskville Recreation Park.
“We had close to 300 people in total that participated in this consultation,” Lewis said. “What was highlighted in this consultation was that residents wanted their park to be fixed up, safe, accessible, just a more welcoming park.”
Lewis said it’s not like residents want a complete overhaul of the park either.
“They like it the way it is but they just want it to be fixed up a bit,” she added. “It’s in a state of disrepair. It’s not just the ball field, there are other things that need repairs.”
The main complaint heard by municipal staff was the fact that the lighting was inadequate.
“The lighting wasn’t working well or at all,” Lewis said. “It’s extremely expensive and we just didn’t have the resources to fix it.”
During a 2015 windstorm, a light standard was knocked down by the gusts.
“We just want the ball field to be up and running and safe,” Lewis added.

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