Spring time in Liberty County means the start of spring sports, like baseball and softball.
With tons of activities to offer both youth and adults in Liberty County, the Liberty County Recreation Department (LCRD) is kept hopping all year long providing a variety of opportunities from basketball, soccer and volleyball to piano, disc golf and more.
This year there are a total of 71 baseball and softball teams with ages ranging from 4 years to adult age.
Going from 68 to 71 teams is not a significant increase, according to Jimmy Martin, director of the LCRD. But does keep the staff plenty busy, he said.
“Including assistant coaches, the number of volunteers for just this program is around 175 people,” said Martin.
Martin said it takes each coach an average of 50 hours of volunteer service, all of which is donated to the LCRD, to participate.
Independent Sector, a national membership organization that brings together nonprofits, foundations and corporations to advance the common good, determined that in 2016 nationally an hour of volunteer service was worth $24.14. They produce this dollar figure using a formula that can be found at www.independentsector.org.
Just for LCRD softball and baseball, that is about 8,750 volunteer hours or $211,225 that is donated back to the Liberty County community.
“These volunteers, along with our staff and the officials all strive to deliver a great program to the kids and adults playing,” said Martin.
While it is too late to sign up for these sports, be sure to check out their website at www.lcrd.net for future programming.
“My son, Robert Jr., is playing baseball again for the first time in three years, and my daughter, Rebecca, is playing softball and volleyball for the first time ever. And as a family, we have really enjoyed getting involved in rec sports and look forward to a busy season,” said Robert Clark, parent and volunteer.
The overall goal for the youth baseball, softball and t-ball programs is to promote health and physical fitness, good sportsmanship and fundamentals to provide a fun and worthwhile leisure activity for participants, coaches and parents.
Clark said that the atmosphere of the LRCD program has provided his family with a lot of enjoyable hours so far spent learning and meeting new people.
Looking toward the start of the actual games, Martin wanted to remind spectators and parents of the LCRDs favorite saying, “Conduct is contagious, so please make sure yours is good.”