CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Wednesday, new sports fields were unveiled that will let kids at the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club learn and play baseball and soccer.
The Kevin Harvick Foundation joined with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation to make this dream a reality.
They gifted the field to the Milton Road Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club.
The 52,000 square foot playing field includes a synthetic turf field, complete with a digital scoreboard, backstop, dugouts, and bleachers.
Major Larry Broome with the Salvation Army says they haven’t been able to teach the kids baseball in a while, but now they will.
The field was created by the same company that made the fields for the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and other professional sports teams.
The field itself is named after NASCAR Cup Champion, Kevin Harvick.
“I don't necessarily need my name on the field. I just like being a part of the group," Harvick said. "When you put a lot of really good people together, great things happen.”
The main purpose of the field though, not about learning how to play sports, but about learning how to be a good human—and being able to do it in a safe space.
“There's nothing like giving kids an outlet to change the outcome of their life," Harvick said. "By putting them in a quality facility, a safe facility.”
Broome said he thinks the new space will have a big impact on kids.
"It will be a foundation for children in our community to grow into healthy members of society," Broome said. "Lives are going to be touched in this place. They'll look back and remember the days they spent here.”
MORE ON WCNC CHARLOTTE: