Flaherty Community Park (FCP) has been a spring and summertime sanctuary for boys and girls to play baseball and softball for decades. As with everything, prices have continued to rise for the park — be it uniforms, umpires, balls or the park's upkeep. Thankfully, volunteers and local businesses have always helped ensure the park succeeds.
This fall, a local business made a huge contribution to the program’s continued success when Flaherty Chevrolet (formerly Tony Brown Chevrolet) made a $1,000 contribution to the park. Owners Travis and Rachel Flaherty green-lighted the proceeds of a test drive for youth sports, in which Chevy donates money to a dealership’s youth program of choice based on the number of vehicle test drives they conduct. Flaherty said they had a goal of raising at least $500 this year but were blessed to have done double that.
Al St. John, a sales consultant at the dealership with ties to FCP, said that Chevrolet wants a minimum of around 20 test drives to qualify, but the community blew that out of the water, with over 50 customers taking part.
“My son plays at this park. We love it,” said St. John. “We had a super good turnout. This is probably our 3rd or 4th year doing this.”
St. John said that several teams also receive uniform sponsorships, and the dealership has also provided equipment to the park through another Chevy program that has included nets, scorebooks, pitch counters, practice balls, equipment bags, ball buckets and first-aid kits, just to name some of their contributions.
As Flaherty Community Park ‘drives’ ever closer to the 2024 season, the future for its youth looks bright thanks to contributions like this by Travis and Rachel Flaherty, Al St. John, and all of the team over at Flaherty Chevrolet.