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South Shore park up for corporate-sponsored makeover cash

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 19, 2009

GIBSONTON - Vance Vogel Park, a well-used sports complex just east of Interstate 75, is one of 100 finalists in a national competition for a free athletic field makeover.

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes is sponsoring the Earn Your Stripes program, offering $15,000 for field renovations to 30 complexes around the country based on online votes and results from a panel of Kellogg's judges.

An additional 25 fields will be renovated by corporate sponsors.

Vance Vogel is one of three parks in Florida to make the cut — and the only one in the Tampa Bay region.

Public voting, limited to one vote per day for adults 18 and older, ends May 31. Go to www.frostedflakes.com to vote for your field of choice.

Kellogg's kicked off the initiative during the Super Bowl in Tampa this year, when the company renovated fields at Lincoln Gardens Park in Tampa. Sports enthusiasts then flooded the company with 3,400 nominations, which were narrowed by the judge's panel to the top 100.

The criteria included the location and age of the field, the feasibility of a makeover, the impact on the local community and the availability of other fields in a given area, said Susanne Norwitz, director of brand public relations for Kellogg's.

Vance Vogel meets many of those criteria, said Little League parent Lisa Wood, whose 7-year-old son, Michael, plays on the Red Sox team in the AA division at Vance Vogel.

"On the field where we play, it's run down. It's old; the concession stand is old; the fields need a lot of work; and the one we play on is mostly dirt," Wood said.

East Bay Little League is growing yearly as the southern portion of Hillsborough County continues to grow, she said.

According to Kenny Davis, president of the East Bay Buccaneers, a football organization that uses the park, the kids need many things, from a chain-link fence around the football field to new field sod, an irrigation system, lighting in the parking lots, a shelter for youngsters to get out of the lightning and practice and game fields for the baseball teams.

Even if Vance Vogel wins, $15,000 won't solve all its problems. But each year, users of each field submit a wish list to the county, said John Brill, a spokesman for Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Winning could be an added bonus, above and beyond what the county might choose to renovate, he said.

Winners will be notified in June.

Norwitz said Kellogg created the Earn Your Stripes program to provide children across the country with the opportunity to stay active and give them better places to play.

"As park and recreation budgets are being cut throughout the country, we feel it is more important now than ever to ensure our children have ample opportunities to stay active," said Kathleen Pipe, Kellogg's director of brand marketing for children.

"We've been overwhelmed with the incredible community support for these fields, and we feel that this initiative is a great way for Kellogg to make a real difference in kids' lives."

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 627-4763.

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