Sports

Orangeville Bengals receive $12,500 donation from Brackett Auto Group

September 8, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Orangeville and Headwaters Minor Baseball Association, with teams known locally as the Bengals, has received a major boost in support during the renovation of the association’s clubhouse, also known as ‘the shack’ at Springbrook Park in Orangeville.

The Town recently began a long-needed upgrade to local baseball diamonds including replacing the crushed limestone infield with clay. A clay infield provides better conditions for a player sliding into base as well a better field surface for fielding a baseball.

The Orangeville Bengals have long been requesting updates to both the diamonds and their clubhouse.

The Town supplied $15,000 through a grant for renovations with fundraising efforts providing additional funds. The Brackett Auto Group donated $12,500 to help with the completion of the project and brought the total amount to around $40,000.

“Today we donated $12,500 to the Orangeville Headwaters Baseball Association to go towards the renovations of the shack,” explained Randy Ellsworth, director of operations for the Brackett Group, and also the dad of Bengals players. “My kids play for the Orangeville Bengals, so we’ve been talking to the them and they have been looking for sponsorships. They sent us an e-mail and we reviewed it and we decided we wanted to participate. Baseball is my passion, and I spoke to Danny (Brackett, president of the Brackett Auto Group) about it, because I have three kids in baseball right now, and he wanted to support it.”

The Bengals clubhouse serves several functions for the local ball club.

“The refurbishment of the town’s diamonds was part of the town’s 10-year master plan,” explained Orangeville and Headwaters Minor Baseball president, Jesse Edmunds. “We did a lot of work as an association to go around to the diamonds and identify deficiencies and things we needed upgraded. The fact that it lined up with the year we were doing the shack renovation was just by chance. They budgeted in this year to do the work, and we came up with this plan for the shack. The shack functions as a snack bar, an equipment storage area, and two bathrooms. The renovation will add a second floor which will give us an announcer booth to be able to enhance the experience for the kids on the diamond and it will give us a place to hold league meetings – right now we don’t have a place to do that, and we’ll have some extra storage. We may even look at selling some Bengals swag so you’ll see our logo around town.”

The clubhouse is legally owned by the town, but they allow minor baseball to have full access and use of the facility.

The contribution by the Brackett Auto Group, will make a major impact on the club house renovations and help minor baseball thrive in the region.

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