By Pam Parisi
The East Bay Buccaneers, a local youth football team, have a new home field to play on thanks to generous contributions from RIPA & Associates and Newland Communities (AMERICAN NEWLAND COMMUNITIES) and their joint venture partner NORTH AMERICA SEKISUI HOUSE, LLC (NASH). These companies graciously donated dirt and transportation equipment valued at more than $20,000 to re-grade Vance Vogel Park in order to alleviate the field’s ongoing flooding issues.
RIPA & Associates donated the dirt to the park after it was excavated from the new St. Joseph’s Hospital – South construction site. However, East Bay Buccaneers President, Jason Hillman initially had no means to transport it.
“A hauling company told us we’d have to pay for 48 trucks to come move the dirt,” Hillman said. “We reached out to the community for help because I had no idea how we could afford that.”
After learning about its need, Newland Communities and its newest Apollo Beach master-planned community, Waterset, stepped in to help the young Buccaneers.
“The youth football league and nearby park are invaluable community assets,” said Pam Parisi marketing director for Newland Communities. “We all wanted to pitch in and give the East Bay Bucs a home field they were proud to play on.”
Gradation and sodding of the field were recently completed, just in time for football season. The upgrades will allow the East Bay Buccaneers to play the full year at Vance Vogel Park for the first year ever, due to raining and flooding in years past. For more information about the East Bay Buccaneers and a full game schedule, go to www.eastbaybucs.org.
Waterset is owned in a joint venture partnership between NORTH AMERICA SEKISUI HOUSE, LLC (NASH), the U.S. business unit and full subsidiary of SEKISUI HOUSE, LTD., Japan’s largest homebuilder and leading diversified developer, and Newland Real Estate Group, LLC, whose development business, Newland Communities, is the master developer of the community. It is one of 30 communities the NASH-Newland partnership owns together in 11 states across the United States.
