How the Toronto Blue Jays are helping bring baseball to a northwestern Ontario community

A new baseball diamond is on deck for a small northwestern Ontario community just north of Thunder Bay, and residents say they have the charitable arm of the Toronto Blue Jays to thank for it.

Currently, families in Lappe, which has a population of roughly 4,500, must drive 30 minutes to Thunder Bay to participate in organized sports.

But the Lappe and Area Local Services Board is working to bring recreation closer to home. The board — which provides services across the boundaries of Ware, Gorham, Jacques and Fowler — recently purchased a property on Old Hall Road to be developed as a hub for community recreation.

Part of that property's development has been creating the community's first ball field.

Last spring, board members learned of the Jays Care Foundation, the MLB team's charity, and its annual Field of Dreams grant program, and decided to pitch an application. The grants are for communities to either improve existing baseball facilities or construct new ones. 

More than 100 communities and organizations applied this year — the most to date — and Lappe is among 15 successful applicants across Canada. 

Residents gathered at Gorham and Ware Community Public School, clad in blue and white, to watch the livestream Sunday to find out whether they would be getting the grant. Minutes before the announcement was made, a power outage nearly halted the celebrations, but a Bluetooth speaker came in clutch to broadcast the news.

"There was a huge [uproar] of commotion and excitement and emotions from the community. Everybody just was screaming with excitement that we got [the livestream] going and that we got the $50,000, so it was pretty amazing," said the board's recreation director, Lindsay Sipila.

The $50,000 Jays Care