WEB EXCLUSIVE

Metro students pitch in for new baseball fields

By Matt Gunn
gunnma@mscd.edu

A group of Metro sport industry operations students recently helped give the gift of baseball to Parker youth while gaining practical experience in their chosen field.

In partnership with the Double Angel Foundation, Dianne Harrison Miller’s class took on the task of marketing a nonprofit organization, raising awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning and building baseball fields. The students ran everything from promotions and corporate sponsorships to the creation of a Website.

“We took the project and we just threw ourselves into it,” said junior Megan Stecklein.

The class found creative ways to raise money for the project. A popular venture was the creation of replica baseball bats inscribed with the foundation’s logo.

“The great thing about those bats is it’s something parents can buy for their kids,” Harrison Miller said. “It all adds up over time.”

In the end, the students raised thousands of dollars and helped memorialize Dillon and Logan Dixey, who lost consciousness and drowned as a result of carbon monoxide inhalation in 2000.

The four baseball fields, which are nearly complete, were built with various age groups in mind. They feature age-appropriate outfield depths and proportionate base paths. Each field has artificial turf outfields along with sunken dugouts and lights for night games.

“The thing I thought was neat is that those fields are going to be there for years to come,” Harrison Miller said. “Some of those students will come back in 10 years or so and say ‘I was there.’”

Not only was the Double Angel project a way for students to gain college credit, it also became something significant they can take into the professional world after school is over. Seeing the fields take shape and the community come together rewarded the Metro students with more than just a passing grade.

“It was just this culmination of everything we’d done—all our effort and all our hard work,” said Stecklein.