The current state of the baseball diamond at the Louis Bull Tribe (Photo credit - Trevor Larocque)
The Louis Bull Tribe of Maskwacis is set to receive funds from the Toronto Blue Jays Care Foundation to upgrade their baseball diamonds, as well as fund equipment for the locals to use as a part of the foundation’s Field of Dreams program.
Louis Bull Tribe and 14 other communities across Canada receiving funding: A total of $1.5 million will be split among the 15 communities.
In an interview, Trevor Larocque, Infrastructure Director for the Louis Bull Tribe, spoke about what lead to him submitting his community to receive funding.
“Once I heard about the Blue Jays grant, I thought ‘oh wow, this is worth pursuing’. I said to myself ‘the worst they can say is no,’ so let’s get this done,” Larocque said.
“Over the years, [our baseball diamond] just deteriorated. Because of that, no one uses it.”
The Louis Bull Tribe had their application accepted and, according to Larocque, the amount that the Louis Bull Tribe is set to receive should be in the ballpark of $100,000, though it has not been confirmed yet.
“Part of our proposal was that we had to have a plan for our ball diamond to bring it back to shape. We do have a plan ready to go: what we have to spend and what jobs we have to do,” Larocque said.
Larocque used those same baseball diamonds in his youth, sharing the diamond with his late father. He wants nothing more than for the current generation to get outside and have fun with a bat in hand.
“One of the things we try to do here is look for more positive things for our youth, to get them active, get them busy. We wanted to bring softball, baseball, and fastball back to Louis Bull. Part of our plan is we’re going to get money for ball equipment, uniforms, and we’re going to get a team going as soon as we can.”
All of the communities receiving funds:
- Maskwacis, Alberta – Louis Bull Tribe
- Peachland, British Columbia – District of Peachland
- Dakota Plains, Manitoba – Dakota Plains School
- McCreary, Manitoba – McCreary Minor Baseball
- Elsipogtog First Nation, New Brunswick – Elsipogtog Sports & Recreation
- Harvey, New Brunswick – Harvey Minor Baseball Association
- Plaster Rock, New Brunswick – Village of Plaster Rock
- Sackville, New Brunswick – Sackville Minor Baseball Association
- Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador – Gander Minor Baseball
- Halifax, Nova Scotia – BGC Greater Halifax Clubs
- Kingston, Ontario – Kingston Thunder Baseball Association
- Lappe, Ontario – Lappe & Area Local Services Board
- Toronto, Ontario – Ryerson Community School
- Lac-Mégantic, Quebec – Association de Baseball Mineur de Lac-Mégantic
- Whitehorse, Yukon Territory – Softball Yukon
Listen to the full interview with Trevor Larocque here:
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