Belleville named a finalist for Kraft Heinz Project Play’s $250,000 prize

Field of Ability members (from left) Rob Cowell, Geoff Cudmore, Lisa Newman-Chesher, Isaac Whalen, Aurora Whalen (in front of Isaac), Tracey Peny, Sarah Collins, Kristen Whalen and Chris Whalen gathered at the Dugout Restaurant in Belleville Monday night to meet a Kraft representative and plan their campaign to gather votes for Kraft Heinz Project Play. Photo by Brett Bullen, QNet News

By Brett Bullen

BELLEVILLE – Belleville has been named one of four finalists from across Canada for a $250,000 grand prize for community recreation projects.

The city made the top four of the Kraft Heinz Project Play list for a plan to make the baseball diamond at Parkdale Veterans Park fully accessible. The winner is chosen by online votes from the public, with the announcement coming Oct. 28.

The project, proposed by Belleville’s Challenger Baseball group, is called Field of Ability, and the plan is to make a ballpark that is completely barrier-free to give every child a chance to play.

“The dream field includes a fully rubberized turf,” Field of Ability chair Lisa Newman-Chesher said during a planning session Monday night. “It has accessible huge dugouts for the whole team to participate with their wheelchairs, walkers and canes. It will be completely fenced in for safety, (have) paved pathways so players can get to and from the diamond, (and have) paved parking with more accessible parking and all the bells and whistles, bleachers, a scoreboard, an announcer’s booth and a picnic area.”

The current facility at Parkdale Veterans Park is a dirt field with little to no fencing.

“It is rugged, it is grassy, you can’t play in certain weather conditions,”Newman-Chesher said. “It can be a challenge for these kids to get around the field with their mobility devices.”

The current field at Parkland Veterans Park is all dirt and grass paths and the outfield fence is metres away from Sidney Street. Photo by Brett Bullen, QNet News

Kristen Whalen – whose daughter, Aurora, is a Challenger baseball player who uses a mobility device – agreed that that there a lot of problems with the Parkland field.Belleville’s accessibility co-ordinator Sarah Collins.

“It’s either a sandpit or a mud bog, depending on the weather,” she said. “The wheels on (Aurora’s) walker get coated with mud and sand and dirt, and it just slows her down. We want every kid to be able to participate as fully and independently as they can.

“My daughter needs to ask for assistance in a lot of things in her life, so the things she can do independently – she takes great pride in that.”

The renovations to the field would add full fencing, which would have the benefit of signifying home runs and also provide another level of safety.

Belleville’s accessibility co-ordinator Sarah Collins, explained that some of the players are a flight risk, which means that without a fence their parents might not be comfortable having them participate.

“Now, with a fully fenced field, they have that peace of mind that their child is not playing in an open field,” she said.

But regardless of the field they play on, some kids may not always be able to play independently because of their disabilities. So the league pairs each child with an adult buddy to help them with tasks like running the bases, fielding and throwing balls.

Katherine and Nik Pankow are two of the league’s buddies and are also volunteers on the Field of Ability committee. Right now, Parkdale is “not great,” said Nik Pankow, a behaviour therapist. “For kids with walkers or wheelchairs it can be very tough to get around out there and creates physical challenges. With the rubberized turf it could really just create a sense of independence for the kids.”

Katherine Pankow, an occupational therapist, added: “Most of my job at games is giving my buddy a push because her wheelchair gets stuck.”

The new field will create opportunities for local business as well as an accessible park for kids to play in, the Field of Ability group says.

Aside from the $250,000 investment if Belleville wins Project Play, the group has already raised over $150,000 in grants and fundraising for work at the park – money that will go to local businesses doing the work.

“If we can get it done locally and support our local businesses that way, that’s always a huge plus,” Collins said. “We’ve contacted local engineering firms and people who develop the play structures, rubberized surfacing, fencing companies. All of these local business we’ve explained the project to and they have given us quotes.”

If Belleville wins the contest, there be enough money to start construction this coming spring, committee members Geoff Cudmore said – “and that means kids will start playing on it in the summer of 2020.”

Improvements to the park will be made even if the project doesn’t win the grand prize in the contest. On top of the money raised through ongoing local fundraising, each finalist in Project Play will receive $25,000 from Kraft Heinz.

Belleville is competing against finalists in Calgary, Antigonish, N.S., and Shaunavon, Sask.

You can review all the nominees and vote on the Kraft Heinz Project Play website. Voting started on Saturday and will finish Friday. The winner to be announced at 1 p.m. on TSN/RDS on Oct. 28.

There is no limit to how many times a person can vote for a community, but you can only submit one vote at a time.

“We need to make sure people know that when you go online and vote once that their job is not done – they need to vote again and again and get other people doing the same,” Newman-Chesher said.

Kraft Heinz Project Play has been in existence for 10 years and has awarded over $2.6 million to community projects.