Orange County Receives Federal Funding to Facilitate Booster Park Repairs and Upgrades
By: Orange County Communications Department
Most Orange County residents with children recognize the important role played by Booster Park, operated by Orange County Parks & Recreation. It is the only public youth sports complex of its size in Orange County, and it plays host to hundreds of young baseball, softball, and soccer athletes every weekend during the spring and fall seasons. Originally built and formerly run by volunteer organizations, parents have brought their children to Booster for decades. It ’ s a great location to enjoy the greenspace, take a walk, play on the playground, or have a picnic and watch the colorful parachutes open as skydivers gracefully return to the ground. While focused on youth sports, Booster Park is also a community hub, in part due to its central and convenient location off of Route 20. For example, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank ’ s
Congresswoman Spanberger presents County officials with a check representative of the funding.
Mobile Food Pantry holds a distribution at the park every third Tuesday of the month. Each distribution provides food to hundreds of households. Booster Park is also an event center. While always scheduled around its primary role of supporting youth sports, it is still able to host multiple events throughout the year. These have included Halloween Movie Nights, Michael ’ s Mile Color Powder Fun Runs, Playin ’ in the Park Independence Celebrations, National Nights Out, and even outdoor job fairs. Parks & Recreation first assumed responsibility for Booster Park in January 2016 after receiving a request from Orange Youth Sports Foundation to relinquish operations to the County. This transfer was unexpected, but staff worked diligently to make repairs and preparations with limited resources to ensure youth sports would proceed uninterrupted that spring. It was a great success, and the park was proudly
opened on schedule, with staff receiving significant positive feedback about its condition. Since then, Parks & Recreation has continued to make sure Booster Park fields are mowed, dragged, and otherwise prepared for both practices and games. Despite these efforts, some projects have remained out of reach due to funding. Since inheriting the facility, the need for new fencing, an upgraded concession stand, and repaired practice facilities have been routinely recognized. The chain - link fences and backstops surrounding the baseball and softball fields are more than twenty (20) years old. They are broken, rusting, and curling upwards in several locations.
Orange County Parks & Recreation staff look forward to making the repairs and improvements to Booster Park.
Page 13 | April, 2022
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