The Fayette

Field of Hope still needs the help of corporate sponsors and individual

donors to help build a baseball field designed to make it easier for players

who have physical disabilities.

The Field of

Hope, which will feature a rubberized playing surface, will be located

at the Highway 74 South baseball/soccer complex in Peachtree City. Organizers

hope to begin construction in March and have the field ready to play on

The effort

still needs a mixture of approximately $300,000 of both cash and in-kind

donations, said Nick Harris, who is helping organize the fundraising project.

"We still

don't have any major corporate sponsors," said Harris, who also is

head of Peachtree City's Challenger baseball league, a special program

for players with physical disabilities.

So far, organizers

have raised approximately $232,000 of in-kind services and about $50,000

in cash, much of which came from a celebrity softball game and country

concert held by Kicks 101.5. Group VI has contributed approximately $50,000

of in-kind donations to help make the project a reality, Harris noted.

The Field of

Hope would be the second of its kind in the entire country and Harris

hopes to attract a national tournament to use the field here. In Fayette

County alone, approximately 2,400 children qualify to participate in the

Challenger league, but many participants travel here from other counties

that don't have a similar league, Harris said.

The program

is currently run on a normal Little League field, but that causes problems

for some participants, Harris said.

Particularly

when the it was damp, "some kids couldn't even get onto the field,"

Harris noted.

The field will

feature a surface that makes it easier for children using wheelchairs

and walkers to participate, Harris said. The program was also designed

for children with blindness, he added.

The rubberized

surface has a life expectancy of approximately 30 years.

The plans also

call for a concession stand that was designed to be "all-accessible,"

Harris said. There will also be room left for a second regular baseball

diamond next to the current complex.

The Peachtree

City Planning Commission approved the conceptual site plan for the field

Monday night.

To inquire

about donating services, products or funds for the project, contact Group

VI at 770-389-9100 or the Bank of Georgia at 770-631-9488.

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