Wildhorse Sports Association receives grant

PLAINS – Wildhorse Sports Association received a $5,000 grant from Blackfoot telecommunications last Tuesday, putting the organization closer to their goal of constructing a very ornate and much-needed sports complex at the old Plains airport.

“The grant put us halfway to the necessary $10,000 in matching funds to secure a Challenge Grant from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation,” WSA secretary Kim Bergstrom said. “If we raise another five thousand dollars before December 18, 2013, it will leverage the ten thousand dollar award pledged by WF.”

Bergstrom then described the number of grants WSA has secured, which includes the PPL Montana Community Fund ($10,000), the Avista Corporation’s Montana Fund ($3,500), the [pending] Washington Foundation ($10,000), Blackfoot Telecommunications ($5,000), and the CTEP from Sanders County ($43,000).

“Of [these grant funds], the forty-three thousand dollars can only be used to help construct a non-motorized access trail to the site,” Bergstrom said. “The remaining funds will be used to construct fields at the site, etc. If we raise the additional five thousand dollars, we will have another fifteen thousand dollars to put into the site, bringing that total to forty-three thousand, five hundred dollars.”

The non-profit organization has held a total of three fundraisers over the past year, and has received donations from area individuals as well as businesses.

They hope to have Phase I of the construction of the sports complex – the construction of the Babe Ruth fields – by the end of this year.

“At this time, we are drilling wells at the site that will run irrigation systems for the fields,” Bergstrom said. “Nelcon, Inc. out of Kalispell graded in the two Babe Ruth fields in November, and we are working with Farrier Fencing to begin the construction of backstops, dugouts, and field amenities on those two fields.”