Remarks by Marilee Kenney Hunt at the Dedication of the Girls’ Softball Fields
Good afternoon! Are you as excited as I am??? Really??? I wonder because I’m really, really excited….and I don’t even get to play a game on these great new fields tonight!
I can guess why you are excited….because of the game, because Girls Softball finally has its own fields and you won’t need to worry about being kicked off the old fields in the middle of a game or give up practice because someone else needs the field. Those are important things for sure!
But I don’t play softball so none of those things will make MY life better….. I don’t even have any daughters young enough to play softball and my granddaughters don’t live here…. so why should I be so excited?
I’ll tell you why: because you are part of my community and I am part of your community. And when we live in a community, when your needs are fulfilled, MY community is better and THAT makes me happy!!! So, I’m really, really, really happy today.
I have the privilege of chairing YOUR Community Preservation Committee. That Committee exists because, in 2005, YOUR Community cared enough to vote to set money aside for projects just like the girls softball fields. Some of you were probably just little kids, maybe even babies, when that happened. It seems like a long time ago. But, because you live in a state that
had vision and created the Community Preservation Act and you live in a town that had the vision to choose to participate in that act, both your state and your town were there to partner with your Girls Softball leaders and make these fields for you. THAT is partnership and THAT is community.
I am happy for you, I’m happy for me, and I’m happy for all those people who may never even see or set foot on these fields but selflessly voted to provide money to improve recreation, save open space and our historical buildings and documents and
provide affordable housing in Bridgewater. To them, you and I owe a big thank you and a promise to grow up strong and proud always understanding the meaning of community and ALWAYS working to make our communities better.
I can guess why you are excited….because of the game, because Girls Softball finally has its own fields and you won’t need to worry about being kicked off the old fields in the middle of a game or give up practice because someone else needs the field. Those are important things for sure!
But I don’t play softball so none of those things will make MY life better….. I don’t even have any daughters young enough to play softball and my granddaughters don’t live here…. so why should I be so excited?
I’ll tell you why: because you are part of my community and I am part of your community. And when we live in a community, when your needs are fulfilled, MY community is better and THAT makes me happy!!! So, I’m really, really, really happy today.
I have the privilege of chairing YOUR Community Preservation Committee. That Committee exists because, in 2005, YOUR Community cared enough to vote to set money aside for projects just like the girls softball fields. Some of you were probably just little kids, maybe even babies, when that happened. It seems like a long time ago. But, because you live in a state that
had vision and created the Community Preservation Act and you live in a town that had the vision to choose to participate in that act, both your state and your town were there to partner with your Girls Softball leaders and make these fields for you. THAT is partnership and THAT is community.
I am happy for you, I’m happy for me, and I’m happy for all those people who may never even see or set foot on these fields but selflessly voted to provide money to improve recreation, save open space and our historical buildings and documents and
provide affordable housing in Bridgewater. To them, you and I owe a big thank you and a promise to grow up strong and proud always understanding the meaning of community and ALWAYS working to make our communities better.
