Fundraising Effort Pays for New Scoreboards at Parkway Field

Pleasantville sports enthusiasts may notice new scoreboards at Parkway Field this week thanks to the fundraising efforts of local community members.

Jay La Capria, who is on the board of Dad’s Club, was one part of a large contingent who took the initiative to replace the aging, faded and outdated football scoreboard at the field. He said it was purchased sometime in the 1990s and had numbers that were dimly light or couldn’t be seen at all.

“Quite frankly, it was the oldest board around,” said La Capria. “There was no one else in the area that had such an old, kind of decrepit board.”

La Capria and Dad’s Club member Will Collins decided that the best way to get a replacement would be to hold a fundraiser, so the pair created a new organization called the Pleasantville Youth Sports Booster Club. The Booster Club established a fundraising page on Eventbrite.com and targeted current and former Pleasantville football players. After someone posted the link to the fundraiser on Facebook, it went viral, raising about $52,000 in just six weeks.

“We got donations from across the country from people who used to live in Pleasantville, whether they played sports or not. It was that type of thing,” La Capria said.

One alumnus who donated had never played sports but had taken to the field as part of the high school’s marching band, while another had played baseball at Parkway Field before World War II. There was another donor who recalled going to Mickey Mantle Day at the park in 1957. One of the largest contributors to the fundraising effort was the Pleasantville Rotary Club, who donated $10,000 towards the new scoreboard.

Due to the fundraiser’s immense success, La Capria said a baseball scoreboard was bought and installed near the diamond, something that Parkway Field had never had before. Initially they anticipated that it would take another year to afford a baseball scoreboard.

La Capria said receiving the scoreboards was a true community effort even after the fundraiser had ended. George O’Reilly, a local contractor and the Pleasantville Department of Public Works pitched in to get the scoreboards installed.