Jason Arden, of Jason Arden and Associates – Co-operators, throws the ceremonial first pitch to Counc. Michael Diachuk on Saturday morning at Wallace Park to mark the ball diamond’s new naming sponsorship as Co-operators Field. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
Thanks to support from a local business, ball players in the Border City will be batting a thousand.
Earlier this year, Jason Arden and Associates – Co-operators became the new naming sponsor of the ball diamond at Wallace Park. Although the park is still known as Wallace Park, the diamond is now known as Co-operators Field.
The sponsorship takes care of things like the signage and naming of the field as well as the general maintenance of the property.
A ceremonial first-pitch took place last Saturday morning just ahead of the U18 Midwest Prairie Pirates season opener, with Arden and Counc. Michael Diachuk doing the honours.
“We do have some improvements we’d like to make,” said Arden, adding the fact there was incentive to sponsor the diamond as his son plays for the Pirates.
“We’d like lights here, although that’s probably way into the future as it’s an expensive touch; we’ll need more partners on that.
“We also have the batting cage that needs to be repaired.”
Aside from supporting the community and his son’s baseball team, Arden explained he felt a corporate responsibility to pitch in.
“It’s been a really tough two/three years and I can appreciate the struggles that local businesses have had,” he said.
“We’re fortunate in the industry we’re in that our doors can stay open and business kinda keeps going the way it’s supposed to.
“It’s been tough for the last couple of years for businesses to get involved, but we don’t get these facilities, events or activities we get to do here without help and support from the community.”
Representing the City of Lloydminster, Counc. Diachuk couldn’t wait for Saturday’s game to get underway as it’s a sign of the changing of seasons and new partnerships.
“As a city, I think it’s really important to partner with, not only businesses, but even entrepreneurs or people that want to make donations,” he said.
“As we enter into this partnership, I think part of it is, ‘it’ becomes a ‘we’ and the City, and not just the City being responsible for everything. Once we have everybody taking ownership we have more pride and more care in the facilities we have.”
Diachuk also pointed out the fact the bulk of recreational facilities in Lloyd don’t make money.
“Anything we can do to top it up or add to it means we get beyond the basic,” he said.
“This is a first-class park, and I think as visitors come here and play ball, they look around and see a park that any community would like to have in their backyard.”
Arden also noted the fact the City of Lloydminster was very easy to work with throughout this partnership and he is looking forward to continuing the work that’s just started.
“This project went really smoothly,” he said.
“There was a bit of back-and-forth as to what we wanted this to look like, but it was very simple to work with the City.”
