If Langdon builds it, they will come.
That’s the plan anyway.
The Langdon Community Campus is in the process of being built, with a projection of four new ball diamonds set to open in the spring in 2019.
The space is needed desperately, as baseball and softball is quite popular in the area and there is always someone waiting to throw the ball around.
“We’re desperately in need,” said volunteer Chrissy Craig from Langdon. “Our little league has 225 kids registered. If you come any day, there are four little league teams playing on diamond. Our older kids, our majors and our minors, they have to go to Calgary for a home field because ours aren’t to little league standards. Then you have the strain on the families having to drive to Calgary to play.
“We actually had our first all-star team last year, and we weren’t expecting that, and this year we will be having two all-star teams. That’s just our little ones. Our community is growing like crazy and our population is all little ones. When you add in our adult softball teams, we have 18 teams and that’s all we can handle. There are six on the waiting list already. Since February we have had a waiting list for teams to get into our adult league. We are in desperate need of ball diamonds.”
The Langdon Community Collaborative needs to raise another $750,000 by the end of September to ensure that they can open next spring. They are hoping to apply for a grant that will match funds and give them a top-notch facility to offer ball players of all ages.
What they need now is some volunteer support. They are seeking some help with a variety of things, with fundraising at the top of mind for everyone.
“Where we are struggling is that people want this but they don’t want to step up to the plate and volunteer,” Craig said. “We have a great team of leaders but we need volunteers to help us organize community events.
“We are hoping to do events with businesses in town where people can add a dollar to their purchase and that goes towards the project. We’re working on talking to some of the businesses in town to help with that. We need people to help. We don’t have enough volunteer hours in the people that we do have to get all the things we need to do done.”
Some of the roles aren’t that intensive.
“One of the main volunteer roles we have right now is we need people to take an hour and send out follow-up emails,” Craig said. “It’s perfect for someone at home who has an hour. They don’t have to go out and interact with people. They just need to send general emails. There are so many little things people can help with that they aren’t aware of.”
