The May newsletter from DeSales Community Development hit the inbox recently and one of the stories piqued my interest.
First who is DeSales?
"DeSales Community Development is a community-based non-profit formed in 1976 to serve the Fox Park and Tower Grove East neighborhoods in the City of St. Louis. Governed by a board of directors and employing a full-time professional staff, DeSales promotes the ongoing growth of neighborhoods as healthy, diverse urban communities with quality housing."
Per the DeSales newsletter:
"Summer 2018 is shaping up to be another great year for youth in our historic service area. SouthSide Sports, our youth sports program that currently includes soccer, baseball, and indoor basketball, has experienced a record number of participants this year. In a few short weeks, we are set to begin our second year of our partnership with the St. Louis Cardinals' Redbird Rookies program. Because of the amount of youth interested in playing baseball, DeSales has enough participants to support its own league!
This summer will also see some exciting new changes to the field house buildings at PAL Memorial Field, including improvements to the Concession Stand. Will Jernigan, pictured below, is a retired metal worker who has generously donated his time to making improvements to the Concession Stand, including the removal of the old green cage in the serving area and the installation of a new counter and service window door.
Check out our league page for more information about upcoming games! Our first coach meeting will be in early June, so please contact us soon if you are interested in coaching!"
- DeSales Community Development May Newsletter
Photo credit - DeSales Community Development
The Fox Park (the park) concession stand has been closed for the ~7 years we've lived here so it's nice to see it's getting some love thanks to the involvement of DeSales and a kind volunteer.
This is more relevant now than ever as the baseball field and the all purpose field are now being used for a youth baseball and soccer leagues initiated by DeSales.
I swung by the park to get a look at the work:
Nice!
The door was even manufactured by a local company Zumwalt Door just a few blocks from the park on Lafayette Avenue.
The article stated there are other improvements to come, it will be exciting to follow along and see what else is in store, one thing for sure, DeSales and Fox Park are good partners.
Cheers to the volunteers who put in the time and effort to help remake St. Louis into something we can all be proud of again. And to DeSales for being good neighbors and successful organizers of the youth sports league.
I can speak for some of the longtime Fox Park committee members, you've warmed our hearts bringing this new level of activity and positivity to a park we've worked so hard to make a dignified community space for all.
