Barbara Roden
The Journal
The Valentine’s Family Day Dance at the Cache Creek Community Hall on February 12 attracted some three dozen children and their parents, who were all there to have fun and support a great cause.
The event, sponsored by the Village of Cache Creek, was a fundraiser to help the Village purchase new softball equipment.
“We’re trying to bring softball back,” says Marcie Down, Activities Programmer for the Village. “It’s been more than ten years since we had softball here.”
The initiative actually started in early 2015, with a conversation with one parent. It then escalated, and finally, says Down, “We said ‘We need to do this’.” Parents who had played softball as children wanted their own kids to play the sport, and stepped forward to be coaches and be on the executive. Then the flood of May 2015 occurred, and wiped out the playing fields.
Undaunted, the group has carried on, and aims to have softball up and running by the fall of 2016. When they went to look at the available equipment, however, they knew they needed to do something.
“We had a few bases, but no bats or balls,” says Down. And what they did have was old. “We need equipment that’s up to modern safety standards.”
The plan is to have teams that accommodate those aged three and up, with an adult mixed team as well. “It’s not a money-making thing,” says Down, “but it needs to be sustainable. We need to make it affordable for people.” A coaches’ clinic is planned, and the Cache Creek Youth Group will help with the concession and with teams.
A sign-up table for anyone interested in taking part will be at the “Spring Into Action” event at the Cache Creek Community Hall on March 19.