Preserving Stokesdale’s hidden gem

Stokesdale Community Park, owned, maintained and operated by Stokesdale Parks & Recreation, Inc., will undergo major facility upgrades thanks to a successful fundraising campaign and a matching contribution from the town

by KELLEN HOLTZMAN

STOKESDALE – Stokesdale native and Town Councilman Jimmy Landreth remembers the days of walking to baseball practice at Stokesdale Community Park as a youth and seeing volunteers cutting the diamond grass with push mowers.

Time has brought much change to the town, but one thing that has remained constant is the fondness Stokesdale residents have for this community park, nestled in the woods off Capri Drive (and not to be confused with the townowned and maintained park, Martin’s Meadow, behind Stokesdale Town Hall on Angel Pardue Road).

Stokesdale Community Park is owned, maintained and operated by the nonprofit Stokesdale Parks and Recreation (SP&R). A recent partnership between the nonprofit and the town council helps illustrate how the entire community is investing in the long-term viability of a park that was in dire need of an overhaul.

“A lot has happened to kind of the next 50 years or said Jordan Balmforth, president of SP&R’s all-volunteer board of directors.

Earlier this year Balmforth attended one of the town council’s budget planning meetings, where he outlined the need for new light poles, LED lighting and other facility upgrades to Stokesdale Community Park. He requested the town contribute $50,000 to match the $25,000 SP&R had already set aside and an additional $25,000 it plans to raise, which will cover the costs of what he described as critical facility updates totaling over $100,000.

Balmforth went before the council again at its regularly-scheduled meeting in June and provided follow-up information. Before finalizing its budget for FY 2023-24, Stokesdale Town Council unanimously voted to allocate $50,000 it had received in federal grant money and designated for park improvements to go towards replacing worn, wooden light poles at the community parks’ baseball and softball fields along with the installation or reinstallation of new LED lights.

In an interview last Thursday before departing for a family vacation, Balmforth said SP&R was already close to reaching its fundraising goal to match the town’s contribution.

“It’s a great place and I hope it stays that way,” Landreth said of the community park. “I’m just glad the town is able to help them out with their project because they definitely need some lighting. I think Jordan (Balmforth) said it was getting to the point where it was going to become unsafe. We don’t want that. In my opinion it’s money well spent.”

Balmforth is grateful for the town’s assistance and said he never had a doubt the citizens would do their part, especially since they had already done something similar last year, raising $33,000 in one day for a sorelyneeded playground.

“It kind of gave us the idea that if we could do that in one day and put a playground up,” Balmforth said, “we could raise [$25,000] for the poles easy.”

Stokesdale Community Park has recently undergone other major facility upgrades. The support of area businesses and volunteers has made possible bathroom upgrades, new batting cages, and fresh, red dirt that will make for improved infield playing surfaces. In some cases, businesses have provided their services at a reduced price while other locals have volunteered their labor, including efforts to spread the new dirt around the field.

That’s the kind of work it takes, just as in the era when townspeople were push-mowing the outfield grass.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Stokesdale Mayor Pro Tem Derek Foy. “You’ve got a community-driven program and ball field that serves the community, and that stands alone from the town government… I think more folks across the spectrum have skin in the game to see that organization succeed because without that field, there’s really no place to play in Stokesdale.”

As a kid growing up in Summerfield, Foy played on the ball fields in Stokesdale Community Park. Now residents of Stokesdale, his son, Marshall, was able to call the park his home diamond.

Landreth’s sons J.P., Kevin and Brian all played there, too, and that’s one of the things the councilman likes best about Stokesdale: he never feels too far removed from old memories that are not only passed down but added to from generation to generation.

“They’re doing a great job, too, putting all this together,” Landreth said of SP&R. “That’s what it has always taken – people in the community. One of the things that makes Stokesdale a great town is community involvement like that. The government has already taken over athletics in a lot of places and Stokesdale’s just not one of them. I hope they can continue on and keep politics out of it.”

“It’s an organized effort,” Balmforth added, “but there’s a lot of unasked-for goodness where people are just doing this because they know how the [recreation] program is run… It truly is a communal effort.”