Decades ago, the Springhill Fencebusters were at the pinnacle of amateur baseball in Nova Scotia.
The team has been memorialized in many ways over the years, the most recent of which was a sign in the Lions Park that raised money to make improvements to the baseball field. When someone vandalized the sign during the summer, a trio of Springhill girls decided they had to do something about it.
Dan Spence, whose daughter Ceilidh grew up around the field and played baseball in Oxford this past summer, said it was the girls who came up with the idea to do a ‘swing-a-thon’ to raise money to fix the sign.
“When she saw the damage, she knew she had to do something,” Spence said. “She and the other girls from Springhill that played with the Oxford team wanted to do something to raise the money to fix the sign.”
Cumberland municipal councillor Angel McCormick (left) and Mayor Murray Scott present certificates of appreciation to Springhill baseball players (from left) Sophia Ortiz, Miyah Harrison and Ceilidh Spence for their swing-a-thon fundraiser that repaired damage done by vandals at the Springhill Lions Park baseball diamond. Darrell Cole – Municipality of Cumberland photo
The sign honours the members of the legendary Fencebusters teams of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s that dominated junior and senior baseball in Nova Scotia and across the Maritimes. It includes the names of the many donors to support upgrades that were completed to the field approximately a decade ago.
Sometime during the summer, someone spraypainted over the sign. While Spence investigated removing the spray paint, he soon discovered the chemicals in the paint could not be removed necessitating replacing the signage completely with the help of Larry Hunter Sign Design.
What’s amazing is the speed at which the Springhill community responded.
“We put it out on Facebook and within 24 hours we met the goal and within 72 hours we were over $3,000,” Spence said. “We wanted to raise $2,000 to replace the signage and maybe repair the scorekeepers’ box. The response was overwhelming, but not surprising. It’s the way Springhill is. Whenever something happens people respond in incredible ways.”
To raise the money, the girls decided to swing the bat once for every dollar raised. With more than $3,300 raised it translated into a lot of swings – so many that a couple of members of their Oxford Wildcats U12 girls team joined in.
“They thought it would be great for some of the parents to join in,” Spence said.
Ceilidh Spence knew she had to do something to repair the vandalism.
“The Fencebusters were a bit part of baseball in Springhill and it was sad to see what had happened to the sign,” she said. “I wanted to do something to raise the money to fix it and I talked to my friends and teammates about having a swing-a-thon to raise the money.
“The response was incredible. We never thought we’d raise the money we did. We have a lot of swinging to do.”
She was joined by Sophia Ortiz and Miyah Harrison in leading the swing-a-thon and was happy that a couple of their Oxford Wildcats’ teammates offered to help.
Ceilidh Spence swings at a pitch during a swing-a-thon to raise money to repair damage caused by vandals to the baseball field in Springhill. Spence, Miyah Harrison and Sophia Ortiz had to take more than 3,300 swings as part of the fundraiser that required them to swing once for every dollar of the more than $3,300 raised in the community. Darrell Cole – Municipality of Cumberland photo
Municipality of Cumberland Mayor Murray Scott is amazed at the effort.
“We’ve seen a negative turn into a real positive,” the mayor said. “These young girls saw what happened and taken upon themselves to raise the money to restore the damage and to repair some aging responsibility.”
The mayor said council is so proud what they have done and he said it was a privilege to present them with certificates of appreciation from council and staff of the municipality.
“It wasn’t led by parents or adults, they did it themselves,” the mayor said. “It speaks volumes about the future of our municipality.”