Midcoast Athletics

Rockland field project has successful June, raffling Billy Joel tickets in July

Thu, 06/29/2017 - 11:30pm

ROCKLAND — The group of Oceanside High School enthusiasts seeking to renovate the Thomaston Street baseball and softball fields have grown closer to their goal this month. 

After raising over $18,000 in an auction fundraiser in May, the group raised over $1,000 at a June 17 yard sale and over $3,000 through a raffle for four Boston Red Sox tickets located in the exclusive State Street Pavilion Club. 

Now, the group is holding a raffle of four tickets to the Billy Joel concert to be held at Boston’s Fenway Park Wednesday, Aug. 30. The tickets, like the Red Sox tickets, have been donated by Jim Brannan. Tickets will be sold at $10 each and can be purchased by calling 207-975-6185. 

The group, officially known as Oceanside Improvement Fund, Inc., is spearheaded by the organization’s president Doris Pease Norton. The non-profit aims to raise money in order to give makeovers to the Robert Morrill baseball field and the soon-to-be Gene Drinkwater softball field. The two fields located on Thomaston Street in Rockland are currently occupied by the district’s middle school diamond squads. The high school teams use fields in Thomaston that were once used by Georges Valley. The plan is to have the varsity teams utilize the Rockland fields and the middle school teams utilize the Thomaston fields upon completion of the renovations.

The group has received school board approval from Regional School Unit 13 to raise these funds and has received school board support to budget “adequate funds to maintain and upkeep these fields once the improvements have been made,” according to a statement posted on the group’s Facebook page.

The organization hopes to have the renovations completed in time for the 2018 season, with regular season games slated to begin in mid-April. Total costs for the renovation will total $425,000.


Reach George Harvey and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com