Musco Lighting - The Seguin Makeover

The Seguin Makeover
Grants, fund-raisers, and financing make lighting upgrade happen for Texas Little League

Musco is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Little League Baseball®

Tips For A
Successful Pitch

Seguin Little League's Bob Briell pointed out that it's critical for organizations not to put all their eggs in one basket. He recommended volunteers submit applications with several appropriate organizations and offered these general suggestions for high-impact grant proposals:
•	Quickly identify application deadlines.
•	Do your homework to determine the fund's strategic focus and trigger points.
•	Answer all specific questions in the application.
•	Don't just put your hand out. Provide proof that your organization is proactively raising funds.
•	Submit a business plan and timeline for project(s).
•	Maintain detailed records and be prepared for a site visit and requests for additional information.
•	Demonstrate persistence and patience.
Baseball Tomorrow Fund
The Baseball Tomorrow Fund promotes the expansion of youth baseball and softball nationwide. While assisting both non-profit and tax-exempt organizations, the Fund is intended to provide funding for incremental programming or facility improvements for youth baseball. More information on the Fund's program and application process can be found at: Baseball Tomorrow Fund

To upgrade its vintage lighting, the Seguin Little League is going back to the future with a fundraising and finance plan that will replace their 70-year old lighting technology.

To achieve the goals of safer, higher-quality lighting at its six-field complex and increase participation for the current 1,000-player league, a team of volunteers began implementing a $500,000 program to replace original lighting erected in the 1950s.

Teaming fundraising with financing
With an approach to update one field at a time over five years, Seguin Little League Board Member Bob Briell said prudent fundraising over the years allowed a down-payment to initiate the purchase of lighting fixtures for their junior/senior boys' baseball field in 2002. To speed up the installation, the league took advantage of Musco's Little League financing program to obtain a five-year loan for the balance of the program.

Although much of the installation costs were in-kind support, the total modernization was valued at over 25 percent of the total complex plan. "If we attempted to fund raise and finance the rest of the fields, decades would go by before our kids could enjoy the benefit of the modern lighting," said Briell.

MLB grants their wish
That's when the organization started researching additional funding sources. In 2003, volunteers submitted a proposal to the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint initiative of Major League Baseball and its Player's Association, and secured a grant in excess of $60,000 toward the replacement of lighting on the main softball field, which was completed the same year.

Seguin has one of the largest complexes in the district, and Briell said the new lights were a major factor in helping them earn the Texas 2004 Little League State Softball tournament in August.

With four fields remaining in the project, Briell says plans are to continue to seek outside grant support and launch a lighting fund-raising campaign locally. "We successfully demonstrated to the Baseball Tomorrow Fund that we weren't just coming in with our hand out. We were, and are, active in working for the completion of our project," added Briell.

Please send me information on how to light my sports facilities with affordable, quality, low-maintenance lighting systems. •