East Selkirk Recreation Association making upgrades
The East Selkirk Recreation Association (ESRA) has been the recipient of a grant that has allowed them to improve the dugouts at Legacy Park in St. Clements. The work on the dugouts was completed at the end of the season this year and residents can now see what the new dugouts look like as they have been completed.
“The main change was we made the dugouts bigger, so we almost doubled them in depth from front to back, relocated the benches based on the new size, and then added the covered roof on top, which involved having to put in all new posts for the dugout and then construct a roof,” said Glen Veenstra of Pine Creek Homes who was involved with the construction process.
Joclyn Paulic, ESRA Member at Large said that the ESRA noticed that there was a need for improved dugouts about two years ago when they hosted one of the Manitoba’s Provincial baseball tournaments.
“We were covering the dugouts with tarps, and we had a recognition that if we really wanted to continue to have functions here or events here, that we were probably going to need to put something a little bit more permanent up. The other thing that we were noting was the importance of from a health and safety perspective, the heat, the sun, the rain, all of those factors really have an impact on the ability to continue functions here, even through some of that weather. So that was another reason that we thought it would be really helpful and important, especially if the school kids were going to be coming over and using the facility,” she said.
It was about a year and a half ago that Paulic found out that Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries had a grant that could help out with the project. After contacting them and inquiring about the opportunity, ESRA was off to the races getting everything together for the project and a spokesperson from Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries said they were glad to help.
“We are very pleased to support the East Selkirk Recreation Association in enhancing the Legacy Park Baseball Diamonds with six new dugout covers through our Small Capital Campaign Program.” said Greg Paseshnik, Director Programming & Partnerships at Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. “These dugout covers provide the opportunity for the community of Selkirk to host provincial level tournaments and help further our support of amateur sport throughout the province.”
In total, the project cost the ESRA around $44,000 and the grant covered just a little over $21,000 which was a great help to the non-profit organization.
“We now are eligible to host a number of different events through Baseball Manitoba that’s a big one and if there are some local leagues or other community groups that are looking to host baseball tournaments, this will definitely be a draw for them as well,” said Paulic.
If you or a group that you know about would like to learn more about using the new facilities, residents are welcome to visit their website at https://www.eastselkirkrec.com/.
“We’ve already seen cricket in the evenings here, which has been really exciting too. It’s expanded beyond baseball. So if there’s interest in other opportunities, they can definitely reach out to us,” said Paulic.
Paulic encourages residents to check out the new additions.
“As you’re driving by, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t stop in and take a walk around and see what the Legacy Park area has to offer and feel free to reach out to us as well. We’re always looking for volunteers to help us continue to develop the baseball program here in the community, as well as the soccer program. So anybody interested in helping out, we’ve got the facilities, we’ve got the infrastructure, and so we just need the people,” said Paulic.
