In Augusta, Ky., tucked into the southern bank of the Ohio River, lives a few thousand people, a distillery and, now, a Reds Community Fund baseball field.
For the past few months, renovations to the field have been underway — but the plans for that field have been in the works for much longer.
Reds Community Fund Executive Director Charley Frank admits Augusta is the furthest the Fund has ever gone from downtown Cincinnati to install a field, but when he met the people of Augusta, he said he was convinced that it was the right thing to do.
"Usually that first trip, we might meet a couple folks," said Frank. "We met almost the entire community that day. We could see that day how much they cared, how much they wanted to make this happen."
Frank said it felt like the entire town stepped up to the plate — physically or financially — turning a park so far from Great American Ball Park from a gamble into a home run.
Matt Groves grew up in Augusta and played on the field that was recently replaced.
"Most of the time it was flooded," said Groves as he walked on the new synthetic turf that promises to drain away the rain and flooding waters of the nearby Ohio River. "(We) played most of our games on the road, it felt like you were always taking a bus somewhere."
But he described the field as more than just a baseball and softball spot — he talks about it as a gathering spot, where the community can come together and laugh, cheer and be a collective group of citizens.
It's now called Augusta Distillery field at St. Elizabeth Ball Park.
"I think everybody's looking forward to practice now," said Groves. "Everybody's looking forward to getting better. And that translates to the town looking forward to getting better."
Frank knows the power that these Community Fund fields can have in a community — he's seen it firsthand.
The Fund has created dozens of diamonds since 2006 all across Reds country. This is the third major field renovations with St. Elizabeth Healthcare as the major sponsor in Northern Kentucky. The goal is for the Reds Community Fund and St. Elizabeth Healthcare to install a synthetic field as a major project every other year in Northern Kentucky.
"For a community of our size," said Coach Craig Miller, who is the co-head coach of Augusta's varsity baseball team. "It's more than a field. It's a destination point. It's a visiting site."
Having St. Elizabeth and the Reds Community Fund behind the project meant nearly half the cost of the renovations were covered. It was an opportunity the coach says the community couldn't resist.
"We don't have the funding and the unlimited amounts of money in our school system, in our city coffers, our county budgets, but we can come together and create a legacy," said Miller.
And they did. Community members cleaned, painted and power washed.
The field is complete, but the volunteers will be integral in the second phase of new stands and new dugouts.
"It's so much more than baseball and softball," said Frank. "It's community, you know, and that's the goal. The goal is to have a place where people can come together, people can have pride in theirs and their sense of place. This is exactly that type of neighborhood that's going to do that."
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