ROCHELLE — The baseball diamond at Focus House in Rochelle has been restored to playing shape in recent weeks after years in disrepair thanks to the efforts of community organizations and Focus House students, staff and foundation board members, Focus House Community Projects/Marketing and Volunteer Coordinator Jeni Hardin said.
The baseball field has been a longtime staple at Focus House, the Ogle County facility that provides a continuum of services for at-risk youth. In early 1994, the field was dedicated to Jane Roe. The field saw much use early on, but has been in disrepair for at least the past five years, Hardin said.
“It was used a lot in the past and then it wasn't and it got overgrown,” Hardin said. “It wasn't useful since then and it didn't look good. Our Director Brenda Mason wanted to get it fixed up. I reached out to a handful of people with expertise on sports fields.”
The project lasted about a month. Eric at Ag View FS came out and sprayed the field to kill weeds. Clint of the Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District came out to drag the field after the weeds died off. Macklin Incorporated donated a truck load of ag lime for the project. Kevin McNamee and John Seper of LJ Fabricators donated materials and time to build Focus House its own drag to maintain the field in the future. Kiwanis Golden K and Dennis Swinton donated two benches made from recycled bottle caps for the field to replace previous benches that were falling apart.
“The field looks beautiful now,” Hardin said. “We're super excited. We're pretty active outside here in the summers and we like to play sports. It's all completed now. The kids have already been out there playing. We plan to get it sprayed for weeds again and to get new bases. We're hoping to get a softball game together with our staff, our foundation board, city officials, local businesses that helped us to get it done, and our students. We want to put together a fun event out there to thank everybody and have a ribbon cutting for our new field.”
Hardin said the Focus House students are excited by the field’s completion and they assisted with the moving of ag lime and cleaning up the weeds. They’ll be helping with the future upkeep of the field.
“They were involved from start to finish,” Hardins said. “Our kids are very proud of it. This is a lot like the other volunteer projects they do in the community. It's good for them to see something improve from start to finish. We recently helped the VFW with the flags for Memorial Day and kids got to see that from start to finish too. They feel proud when they get to be part of things like that.”
Hardin said Foundation for Focus House Board Vice President Russ Crull and Focus House Head Teacher Tony Wyatt led the charge to get the field cleaned up. It will be used for gym class for students every day possible for kickball, baseball and softball.
“It was a great project,” Hardin said. “I want everyone to know how much we appreciate them. It's really neat to see. We have such great support from the community. People hear that we need something, and they step right up. It came together so quickly. People donated their time and resources. We didn't have to pay anything, and we have a brand new beautiful field. We're just so appreciative of the community and wouldn't be able to do a lot of what we do without it.”
Hardin said the community’s support of the project shows how much people in the area care about the students at Focus House and she and the facility’s staff want to make sure they know that.
“The staff tries to instill in the students that people in the community give back to help them,” Hardin said. “So that's why we do volunteer projects to give back and repay them. Our kids enjoy volunteer work and every step of the way we try to show them why we do what we do. Because of the support the community gives our program and our kids. We want our students to leave here knowing the importance of giving back. We don't ask for much from the community, but when we do, people step up. And we appreciate it more than we can say.”
