Being an active, contributing member of our local community is something we’re very passionate about at NetManageIT. When we learned about the Carrier Field of Dreams Park we knew this was something we wanted to be involved with.
The Carrier Park is a huge outdoor recreation facility built on 28 acres of land donated by Carrier that had been disused for many years. Now it’s a vibrant and verdant athletic park just outside the city. The park is handicap accessible and when complete will boast 9 championship tournament fields, basketball courts, a walking trail, and two dynamic fields which can be used for baseball, softball, lacrosse, soccer, football and more. Carrier Park is a partnership between Carrier, the Town of DeWitt & Supervisor Ed Michalenko, and also the Syracuse Challenger Baseball program, represented by Dom Cambareri and Jennifer Savastino.
The Willis Carrier Park is also the home field for the Challenger Baseball League. The Challenge Baseball League is for everyone, including those with special needs. It’s a non-competitive environment but everyone does their best, plays hard, and has fun. For years, the league relied on various local fields that were made available to them. Now the Challenger Baseball League has an honored spot at a state of the art facility – ensuring this wonderful, community-founded organization always has a place to PLAY!
Converting the land into a sprawling athletic park was no small feat. We all know projects like this take a lot of time, effort, and money. The Town of Dewitt spent years carefully constructing their vision to revitalize this space. From the onset, the town was committed to building this vision at no cost to taxpayers – relying instead on finding grants and generous community donations, such as the scoreboards donated by the Boeheim’s, the Muserlian family (Owera Vineyards) and many others.
“Touring the grounds with Mike Moracco [Town Manager] I could see firsthand his pride and passion for this project” Ben Heitman, COO at NetManageIT.
Five years of hard work later the Field of Dreams is a reality. The Carrier Park was just able to celebrate the grand opening, complete with fireworks. We had the privilege to work with the Town of Dewitt to help network the computers, WiFi, and digital signage all throughout the grounds as well as providing a website to help them get the word out in the early days of the project.
"I grew up just a few blocks from Carrier Park. In fact, my friends and I used to come here to catch pollywogs after school. So, it’s incredible for me to see so many people from the community come together here. That’s what this park is about, building community. Our goal has always been to support this town, the Challenger families, and the greater CNY community with an exceptional recreation facility that creates real economic opportunity and development for residents and businesses. This event is just the beginning of all the park has to offer" Ed Michalenko, Supervisor for Town of DeWitt.
The Carrier Park took what was once a symbol of economic decline, and turned it into something truly great. It’s a heartwarming example of what we can achieve in CNY when we work together for something good. To see a video of the park and learn more about Challenger, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UGjqicKK9Q&t=4s. If you want to get involved and help with the ongoing work at the Field of Dreams, go to http://carrierpark.org/help or help build the dream one brick at a time.