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Matthews: |
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One little boy started it all
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A little boy in this modest community was eager to play in Little League baseball after school. But Matthews school had disappointing news: there was no longer liability insurance available to permit after-school sports on school property.
His father spotted an item in the Charlotte newspaper and sent this letter on March 16, 1960, to Zeb Strawn at Citizens Bank:
“I understand from the papers you will appear before our community of Matthews Friday night to stimulate interest in community development… We are enthusiastic about helping and want to express our willingness to cooperate in any way we can.
“It might be well to take up my offer of last summer to donate sufficient acreage of the Arthur Goodman estate to open a new Little League ball park in time for this season. If this will help Matthews toward an award, we’d love to see it. The property is definitely available for this purpose.”
One thing led to another. The first baseball diamond was up and running that summer. A few acres were given to the new Matthews Athletic and Recreation Association which consisted of like-minded parents of kids dressed up in baseball uniforms with no place to go.
Then a few more acres and a few more until the entire 30-acre estate near the center of Matthews had been donated by the Goodman family.
Today MARA has an annual budget of $905,000 with kids by the thousands participating. Parents stand in line to volunteer. Venues now include many different sports. Lighted, fenced, well-groomed fields are alive with youngsters training and competing year-around at the Memorial Park named for Arthur Goodman, a life-long member of Phalanx 31.
And that grandson, Robert, the little boy who started it all, was recently raised in Excelsior 261.
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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