Buy a Brick! New Entryway, History Walk at WRLL!

On behalf of Wilshire Riverside Little League, I invite you to be a part of history and support our campaign to construct an incredible new entrance to James Combs Field at Riverside. Your contribution will help bring the above vision to life and create a warm welcome for all members of our WRLL baseball community. This entrance will represent every little league player who has had the privilege to play on James Combs field, and honors all the families who have spent their weekends cheering on their players. This is my 3rd year as President and my 8th year as a WRLL parent/coach, and James Combs Field will always have a special place in my heart.

In 2018, the WRLL Board set in motion the 2025 WRLL Vision plan. The plan contained three phrases that would bring more life and functionality to our prized asset, James Combs Field at Riverside. Phase 1 was completed on time and on budget, as we opened the Riverside Turf Field just as Covid-19 shut down our 2020 baseball season.

I’m honored to share an update on that plan's status today as we continue with Phase 2.

Phase 2 began in 2022 with a renovation of the Snack Shack. We give a huge shout out to our friends at Faustrollean Fixtures, who donated $25,000 in materials and labor to complete this project. We also relied on a lot of donated time and effort from WRLL volunteers.

Phase 2 will finish with an upgrade to the entryway at the Riverside complex. Since the space was gifted to Riverside LL in the late 1950’s, this field has been a special place to generations of youth baseball players and their families in NE Portland. We’ve been taking excellent care of the field for many years, and it is truly an amazing space. It needs and deserves a proper entryway, just as Fenway Park has Yawkey Way. This project will be complete with a visionary storytelling of our league’s terrific history. Our friends (and neighbors) at Axiom have generously donated their time and talent to draw up the schematic, which is shown in the above GoFundMe photo.

To get Phase 2 underway, we are kicking off this fundraising effort to provide funds for construction. We hope this project will inspire our sponsors and friends to dig deep to financially support WRLL, just as we expect this project will inspire many generations of youth baseball players in NE Portland!

There are many ways to contribute, but for this GoFundMe fundraiser we are utilizing a Buy-A-Brick concept. Of course, every contribution is important at any level you can do, but we are targeting the following levels:

• Large Brick - $500

• Small Brick - $250

• When you make your donation, please include the name you'd like engraved on your brick (e.g. "John & Sarah Paul" or “The Paul Family”)

We are in touch with our sponsors and other long-time WRLL supporters about other donation concepts, such as naming rights on our new Turf field, and Gold level sponsorships as a way to provide significant financial backing for the project. If you or someone you know is in a position to help in this way, please reach out to [email redacted]

We expect to break ground on the new entryway prior to Opening Day 2023, and aim to complete Phase 2 entirely by Opening Day 2024.

Thank you in advance, the league appreciates your generosity!

-John Paul