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Big-league upgrades: Scout’s project revitalizes Dunkirk baseball site

Dunkirk’s Little League complex at Wright Park was recently spruced up by a boy looking to become an Eagle Scout.

Adam Lukach had the project’s completion certified by the Scouts on his 15th birthday, according to his father, Dustin.

“He came up with an idea to help rehabilitate some of the buildings down here that had gotten a little jacked up,” said Dustin, a longtime Dunkirk Little League coach. Adam has played at every level of Dunkirk Little League, he said.

The teen had to put together a formal proposal for the project, a binder which Dustin proudly showed to the OBSERVER.

The complex has four buildings — a seating pavilion, a batting cage structure, a “snack shack” and a press box by the backstop — and Adam revitalized all of them, with help from family and volunteers.

All prospective Eagle Scouts must complete a community service project and “you’re supposed to manage a workforce,” Dustin said. His son did just that, holding three community work days where he asked fellow Scouts and other volunteers to help him with the complex’s cleaning.

Members of Adam’s family assisted him at other times. It helped a lot that his grandpa is a contractor. That let the Lukachs “get a pretty good idea of what it would take materials wise,” Dustin said.

Adam put together a GoFundMe to pay for the project, seeking $1,500. He barely missed his goal — but wound up having some leftover money anyway, after a couple businesses stepped up with donations. Michael Santangelo, local Sherwin Williams manager, offered paint and Lisa Crandall of ADD Lumber donated building materials.

Adam used his remaining funding to buy gear for the Dunkirk Little League. He acquired training balls, two portable pitching mounds, a training mat for the batting cage, whiteboards and lineup boards.

The work at the Wright Park complex “was a lot of cosmetic things,” Dustin said. “We landscaped, we scraped and painted all the buildings.” All of the concrete around the complex got power-washed; picnic tables were repainted. The bathrooms were “pretty trashed” but got cleaned and had floors repainted.

However, “the biggest thing was the batting cage building,” Dustin said. It was reportedly untouched for 15 years. Garbage had accumulated inside and there was a hole in the structure after a door got ripped out. The wooden siding was rotting away.

The siding was repaired, as was soffit on the roof. The hole was filled in, the garbage cleared out. Weeds had overtaken the batting cage floor, so those had to get removed, too.

Adam started the work at the complex in early August and finished Sept. 15.

Dustin proudly noted that Adam took on this project while also doing the duties of senior patrol leader. Essentially, Adam represents all the participants in his troop before its adult leaders. He’s on track to become an Eagle Scout next spring.

Adam is a member of Scout Troop 267 (troop267fredonia.com), whose charter organization is the Fredonia American Legion Post 59. The troop meets at the Legion post every Monday at 7 p.m.

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