AMESBURY GIRLS YOUTH SOFTBALL LEAGUE IN

About AGYSL-Who We Are:

The Amesbury Girls Youth Softball League (AGYSL) is a volunteer led youth sports organization in the town of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Our purpose is to “teach girls and young ladies the fundamental values of sportsmanship and leadership. Along with the core fundamentals of the sport, our recreation league prides itself on giving girls an experience that fosters social skills, self-confidence, and determination”.

Why We’ve Created this Go Fund Me Campaign:

Over the past four years, The AGYSL Board has attempted to work City Officials and the Department of Public Works to outline necessary repairs to the Amesbury Town Park Softball field to ensure it was safe, playable, and tournament ready for our players and their families. Specific items include:

• Home plate is higher than outfield, creating potentially hazardous optical illusion for the pitcher, infielder, and outfielders when a ball is hit that could result in injury.

• The field does not meet softball field dimensions/requirements.

• A sharp metal grate is on a slope in center field, that could result in major injury to players, umpires, or residents that fall on it.

• The backstop is a mangled and unsafe wire fence behind home plate, presenting a danger to catchers and umpires.

• The field irrigation system is broken and was shut off versus repaired.

• Glass and very large rocks mixed in with dirt in infield since the little league field construction happened, directly related to diamond field project.

• Lack of seating for families, officials, or players with disabilities, which is a violation of the American Disabilities Act (ADA).

In 2022, repair work was funded by the town and scheduled for completion. Unfortunately, none of the repairs were or have been made. You may have noticed that in 2023, our AGYSL athletes in grades k-8 had their spring, summer, and fall seasons negatively impacted because we lost the use of the Amesbury Town Park Softball field because it was deemed unsafe & hazardous for players and officiating by USA Softball. We shared this letter with the town and began attending ongoing city counselor and sub-committee meetings to advocate for the girls and get an actionable plan and timeline in place to fix the field. We used this opportunity to share documentation of our discussions over the past 4 years, and voiced concerns about the new 2023-040 ordinance that was filed in April/May 2023, after we had been invoiced to pay user fees on a field that wasn’t safe because the repairs were never made.

As volunteers, the amount of time our board has taken to try and negotiate with town officials to do what’s right for our members (the girls of Amesbury), has become a full-time legal job on top of our day jobs.

Ultimately, our objective is simple. We’re looking for the city to make the repairs that were funded in 2022 but still haven’t completed, so that it is safe, playable and tournament ready for our girls.

Our Ask Of You:

Share this story to fight for the girls of Amesbury so they have a safe, playable and tournament ready field to play on and pursue their dreams.

All donations will go to helping us cover the cost of legal expenses to negotiate with city officials and devise an actionable solution with a concrete completion timeline to support the 2024 softball season and those to come.

Thank you.

The AGYSL Board

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