A five year dream, in what we thought would be nothing more than that. But, Covid brought itchy feet, and a vision became possible!

Build it, and they will come - that was the driver behind the Kāpiti Softball Club batting cage project. Sunday saw the official launch and opening of the club's new two-lane batting facility at Te-Atiawa park, Paraparaumu.

"The project was one of the biggest fundraisers the club has undertaken in the last ten years; lots of blood, sweat and tears have already gone into this, and we couldn't be happier with the final result. We have built a top-class training facility that our members and our entire community can enjoy." Kyla Huff (Treasurer and Junior Convenor).

The batting cage includes a customized container to house our two batting machines and sitting inside a safe, fully fenced turfed area - with the turf recycled by Kāpiti Hockey Club hockey turf. 

Sunday's opening was a massive milestone for the club, with Mayor Guru taking the first official hit, followed by Richard Mansell from Coastlands.

"We couldn't have done this without the support of Kāpiti Coast District Council; not only did they agree we could build within a community park, but they also helped us every step of the way." Willy Palmer
 
Kāpiti Softball Club would like to thank our sponsors:
NZ Community Trust, Lion Foundation, Paraparaumu/Raumati Community Board, Paekākāriki Community Board, and Ōtaki Community Board.
And to our Business Sponsors: DiggaWorx, Hipsta, Legacy Building, Porch Plumbing and Draining, Gold Coast Mechanics, Auto Doctor, Coastlands, Wellington Softball, Craig Pashby (Ray White), Epic homes, Perfectly Balanced, Kena Kena Four Square, LeDoors, Hunters Construction and Fit it Fitzy. They would also like to thank all the individual sponsors, members, and community who have helped with their fundraising efforts over the last 12 months.

Kāpiti Softball are also finalists in the 2022 Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards.

Challenges
The biggest challenge was then around access - How do we provide people access without it being a burden on our volunteers? Because we have a container that ruled out many smart locks available in NZ, and the others didn't suit what we needed. Broadening our search, we found the AUGUST lock, a deadbolt-style lock that allows us to add (from a smartphone) instant access; this can be added permanently or with recurring access - Perfect.

Next was the booking system, there were plenty of options available.  We went with www.simplybook.me because it was affordable and it allowed us to have different membership options (e.g., sponsor and guest access) - with fine control (e.g., you can only book once a day, or you can't book if you have a current booking). It always allows us to take payments directly from the website interface, and we can upgrade our package when we need more features (so only paying for what we currently need).

The last challenge we are trying to solve now is around health and safety. Because it's such a high trust model - we are currently meeting people onsite for their first visit to go over the rules of the cage and how to book. Which is working but taking up our volunteer hours - we are playing with the idea of doing up a video and online module to allow this to be done remotely - which we will allow for club members but will continue to meet others on site.

We have opened this up to all - you don't need to be a club member to enjoy this; we are already seeing a range of people using our cage - from people outside our region to people using it for stress relief, and we've seen families that want to try something new. We are hoping this will also start to increase our membership base.

This has been a labour of love over the last 12 months and has cost us over $60k ($18K grants) - significant fundraising efforts have taken place. I'm always more than happy to talk to any other clubs that would like to know how we got there, who we used or how we managed to fundraise so much in such a short time for a small club.

www.kapitisoftball.co.nz/batting-cage/how-it-works
www.kapitisoftball.co.nz/batting-cage/first-time-visit

 

 

 

Kyla Huff
[email protected]
027 244 8756