Champagne fundraiser for former Tom Sawyer Little League Field in Elmira

ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – A champagne fundraiser will be held Friday to raise funds for ongoing renovations at the former Tom Sawyer Little League field in Elmira. Willie Owens bought the field from the city last year after it sat vacant for more than 30 years. He renamed it the “Willie H. Owens Field of Fathers” in honor of his father.

“There’s so much history here,” Owens said. “I would say 80% of children or kids who grew up in this area, who are adults now, played here. If you’re from Elmira, you played here at one time. If you didn’t play, you came here to watch somebody play.”

On Friday August 30th, Owens is hosting a champagne fundraiser at the “ Meals on Wheels” at 409 William Street from 7 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $25. The baseball field is located at 1209 Sullivan Street, next to McKinnon Park.

As we first reported in June , Owens says he first had to remove people who were living in the dugouts. He then mowed grass that was up to his waist. Owens says he renovated the concession stand and storage area and replaced all of the electrical wiring.

Owens says he is paying for the renovations mostly from his own pocket, with help from some donors. He is now trying to raise more money for other improvements.

“I have plans, I want to do a track around the field. I want to have a lot of things for the kids. I want to get these kids involved, I want to start mentoring and helping our community do better in our area,” Owens said. “Every dime I get from this event will be for the field.”

Friday’s fundraiser is a partnership with the “ Program of P.E.A.C.E. ” Owens co-founded the community non-profit in 2009. “P.E.A.C.E.” stands for “positive education always corrects errors.”

“We do mentoring, work with veterans, we do transitioning, we wear many hats with that,” Owens said. “We also have stop the violence events coming up.”

“How do you read the current moment in gun violence and your efforts to address it?”

“We have to do something about the violence, definitely,” Owens replied. “We have to do something about it because people are scared to walk the streets. People are scared to come out at night. I’m part of the community, and this is what I do to try to curb that violence. If we all stand up and try to help… We don’t have to be police officers. But we can be people in our community who can talk to someone and say listen, let’s take it easy with these guns.”

“We don’t need to get into the law aspect of it,” Owens added. “We can just get into it being human and caring about our community and our friends and our people. That’s what is most important.”

You can watch our full conversation with Willie Owens below:

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