Watchung Little League Opening Day 2023
Submitted by Councilman Curt Dahl (also president of President of Watchung Little League)
We had a great day with spectacular weather for the 2023 Watchung Little League Opening Day Parade held on Saturday, May 6th.
The Borough came together highlighting some amazing changes at the complex:
We installed our new sign “Home of Anthony Volpe”recognizing the 21 year old from Watchung who plays for The NY Yankees (short stop) this was done on opening day.
We gutted the decaying snack shack from the inside, fixing vapor barriers, weather stripping, insulating, and new sheetrock. Fresh paint, and new seals for the sky light. Then the entire snack shack was painted to match the Watchung blue which now each dug out has as well.
A donated score board was hung, and is fully operational, the scoreboard was donated by the watchung PBA, fire, and rescue squads. We are super thankful to those amazing organizations.
We secured many sponsors to pay for new fencing, fixing batting cages, safety items, point of sales system for the shack (CLOVER) which will all help deliver a better product for our kids and families.
We also brought back our “parade” around the Watchung Lake which our police, fire, rescue and it was a tremendous success. (All that means is the kids had fun!)
We created a new Instagram feed @watchunglittleleague to share information with our families but also to drive value to our generous sponsors which were highlighted on our page as well as signs at the field.
We were lucky enough to have the Watchung council attend: Christine Ead, Paolo Marano, Sonia Abi-Habib, Paul Fischer, Fred Hayeck (sent us a nice note) but was unable to attend.
We also had former Mayor Balla come to both the parade (on his motorcycle) and current Mayor Ron Jubin not only participate In the parade but to also throw a perfect strike for the opening pitch
We gave Mr Brad Elicker the Lifetime Achievement Award for being the best groundskeeper on the east coast.
After that the kids played baseball and there was a very successful silent auction, Trevi pizza, Rita’s Ice, DJ, Sal’s photos for photo day, and a rocking snack shack!
All In all we have a tremendous board who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this happen, and some great volunteers.
Mayor Ronald Jubin had this to add “It was a beautiful opening day for the Watchung little league that was a great success as judged by the smiles on the faces of all who attended. Later in the day we had a second softball event with teams comprised of our Fire and Police departments, Rescue squad along with members of the Boro Council. It was a fun game and we are so appreciative to those who came and played in this inaugural event.
Like most organized events, there was a Herculean effort that went on behind the scenes led by one individual, Curt Dahl. He is current Little League President and a Watchung Councilman serving as liaison to the Recreation Committee. Curt oversaw the repairs to the Snack Shack, installation of new scoreboards and needed upgrades to the playing fields. These were clearly team efforts, but I would have to say Curt and company “knocked one out of the park!”
