By Bruce Warren

Momentum is building for the Dream of Fields Festival to be held July 14 at Niwot High School.  The all-day event will run from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is expected to draw young and old alike for a day of fun, food and entertainment.

Niwot Youth Sports, Inc., which provides baseball, softball, basketball and volleyball programs for youth in the Niwot-Gunbarrel area, will be the recipient of all funds raised.  The proceeds are earmarked for the development and completion of ballfields at Monarch Park. 

Organizers have lined up sponsors for most of the activities in hopes of making all proceeds from the event 100% profit.  Baseball and softball players are already out in the neighborhoods selling tickets.  The tickets, which cost $10 each, can be exchanged the day of the event for 20 coupons, good for food, activities and games.

Representatives of the Colorado Rockies will be on hand to conduct a mini-clinic for players.  Top name entertainment, including Pete and Joan Wernick, Live 5,  and Girls On Top have agreed to perform. Activities will include batting and pitching, a dunk tank and inflatables. 

First National Bank-Niwot and the Longmont Daily Times-Call have become “Grand Slam” sponsors of the festival, but they are not alone.  The Niwot Business Association passed a resolution in support of the event, urging its members to participate to the extent possible. 
The Niwot Community Association will publicize the event in its next newsletter.  The Courier will publish a schedule of events in the July issue. 

Several other sponsors and donors have come forward, including Hillside Egg Farm, Warren & Carlson Attorneys, Markel Homes, Terry Johnson of ReMax of Boulder, Colorado “Pure” H2O, McDonald's of Longmont, Abo's Pizza of Niwot, Satir DeMarco of Zenith Realty, Girls On Top, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Heritage Bank, Pete & Joan Wernick, Niwot Liquor, Falcon Supply, Gordon Moore of State Farm, Bob & Lynn Uhler, John Arnold of Edward Jones, Steele's Market, Niwot Real Estate, A-1 Plumbing & Heating, Crall & Bowes, Nixcavating, Niwot Rental & Feed, Rose Bud Coffee, Niwot Sanitation District, Wise Buys Antiques, Phillips 66, Longmont Dairy Farm, Haystack Mountain Golf Course, Communtiy First National Bank, Niwot Optimists, Chris Finger Pianos, King Soopers and the Left Hand Valley Courier. 

Area churches are also invited to participate, with the Niwot United Methodist Church the first to come forward with volunteers to work the day of the event. 

The Monarch Park Ballfield complex was the first permanent field site acquired by Niwot Youth Sports.  The organization began back in 1968 when the Left Hand Men’s Club, with help from the Kiwanis and Lions Clubs, organized local baseball players to play against Hygiene and Lyons teams.  Dick Hicks, Mike Holubec and Howard Conilogue coached the team, which practiced and played on the old Niwot School field, which is where the southbound lane of the Diagonal Highway now lies. 

When more players joined, Gunbarrel Left Hand Valley Boys Baseball was incorporated in 1972 by John A. “Tony” Dageenakis, the late Jima Lea Folker, and the late Dennis L. Roth.  Except for occasional use of the new high school field by the older players, and the new elementary school field by the very young players, all of the ballfields were on borrowed land, and on “borrowed” time.  By 1978, Girls Softball and a Basketball League had been added, and the organization became known as Gunbarrel Lefthand Valley Recreation Association, or GLVRA. 

Old timers will recall the Ball Brothers Fields at 71st and Lookout Road (now the Homestead), Gunbarrel Estates Field (now the Park), and Johnson Fields at 83rd and Neva Road (now Christopher Court).  All were temporary places to play, made available by the landowners until development occurred. 

In 1984, the owner Ben House and developer Columbine Land Resources proposed a plan to Boulder County which would provide 100 acres of Open Space to the county and 8 acres for ballfields to the community in exchange for rezoning the southwest corner of the House property to light industrial.  House owned 160 acres between Monarch Road and Highway 52 lying west of 79th Street. 

After much discussion in the community, the County Commissioners approved the plan on a 2-1 vote.  Not everyone was happy as some felt the proposal set a bad precedent.  But others, including commissioners Jack Murphy and Buzz Smith, felt the acquisition of the open space buffer and the ballfield site were important. This was at a time when the county had very little money for open space. 

The proposal required the developer to build two ballfields, but the need was so great that GLVRA worked with the developer to build four backstops through the use of volunteer labor.  In 1991 GLVRA became known as Niwot Youth Sports and by 1993 had raised enough money to put sod and an irrigation system in on three of the four fields.  The watering system, however, relies upon tap water which has become very costly. 

Working with Boulder County and Community Food Share, NYS has obtained approval for a plan 
to build an irrigation pond southeast of the ballfields which can irrigate both the ballfields and a CFS garden. The ditch water will also allow NYS to build two additional fields on property just west of the existing fields, which was granted to NYS in 1995 when the Boulder Tech Center was replatted. 

NYS has planned a groundbreaking ceremony for June 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the fields.  Access is off highway 52 at Monarch Park. 

For more information on the Dream of Fields Festival, contact area businesses who display sponsor signs, or log on to www.niwot-tip.org. 

Photo courtesy of Niwot Youth Sports