17 April 2019
The Cheltenham Rustlers Baseball Club officially launched their state-of-the-art lighting system on Diamond one of their grounds at the Kingston Heath Reserve in Cheltenham last night. This a significant milestone and achievement for the Club which has worked tirelessly to secure funding and raise capital to install this much needed infrastructure.
The project has been made possible through the provision of various State and Local Government community grants programs, for which, the Club is grateful for.
The Club warmly welcomed local dignitaries to the event last night, including local State Government Member for Clarinda Meng Heang Tak; Kingston City Councillors, Ron Brownlees and Geoff Gledhill. The Kingston City Council Project Manager Debbie Murray and the Baseball Victoria General Manager, Jeff Paull were also in attendance.
The Chair of the Club’s Board of Management, John Fairweather, said that the lights are more than a piece of infrastructure, it will help the Club to broaden its ability to offer additional programs through the evenings for training and competition baseball.
“Cheltenham Rustlers were proudly awarded Baseball Victoria’s 2019 Inclusion Club of the Year, which reflects the grass-roots nature of our Club. We are community focused and aim to provide an opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to play baseball at our Club.”
“As well as building on our existing competitions, the Club will now be able to offer friendly social baseball programs for all ages and mixed completions with modified rules to suite skill levels.”
“Cheltenham Baseball Club is very grateful to have received assistance from the State Government and from the Kingston City Council. We are extremely excited about the new opportunities that this project will provide to grow our game and engage with our local community,” John said.
The installation of 4 new high mast poles with state of the art LED lights are designed to provide high lighting levels on the playing surface. The new LED lights are cost effective to operate and have a long-life span to reduce operating costs.
Stage 2 of the project which the Club is now fundraising for will provide an additional 2 poles and extra lights to enable senior and state level competition.
