DAVENPORT, IOWA (April 8, 2019) — The Quad Cities River Bandits and TBK Bank, SSB have announced an initiative to renovate youth baseball and softball fields in the Quad Cities and surrounding areas. The first project as part of this initiative will be completed this week at Northwest Park in Davenport.
The Northwest Park Babe Ruth Field will undergo a transformation on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week in order to give the young athletes playing on this field a better baseball experience. River Bandits Head Groundskeeper Andrew Marking will lead a team of volunteers from the River Bandits front office and TBK Bank team members throughout the project. Some of the planned improvements include new pitching-rubbers and plates in the bullpens, re-sloping the pitching mounds, cleaning up and levelling the area around home-plate, cleaning the edges of the infield, clearing the infield dirt of grass and weeds and replacing some of the sod on the field. QC Custom Tees has partnered with the program to provide t-shirts for all of the volunteers.
The field is home to the Scott County Babe Ruth League. The league gives children under the age of 18 an opportunity to play baseball in the spring prior to their summer baseball seasons. For some of the players who won’t play high-school ball this represents their last chance to play organized baseball.
The River Bandits and TBK Bank will hold a press conference at 11AM on Thursday, April 11 at Northwest Park to unveil the renovated field. The address for the field is 3400 N Division St in Davenport. Members of the media are invited to attend and take footage of the new field. River Bandits General Manager Jacqueline Holm, TBK Bank; Midwest Division President John DeDoncker; and Mike Lizak from the Scott County Babe Ruth League are scheduled to address the media at this event.
Volunteers will be working on the field Tuesday and Wednesday from 11AM–3PM.
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2019 season marks the River Bandits’ seventh year as the Class-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and the twelfth anniversary season of regaining the River Bandits moniker, which was voted a top-8 nickname in all of Minor League Baseball in 2015. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities sports market, which The Sports Business Journal in their latest rankings named one of the top two minor-league sports market in the country. Each year the River Bandits donate three annual all-tuition-paid college scholarships, a value of approximately $85,000, as part of the Bandit Scholars Program, which has been in place since 2009. Charitable contributions surpassed $600,000 in 2018, including a $100,000 cash donation to Genesis Health Systems; in 2015 and again in 2017, Ballpark Digest awarded the Bandits its “Best Charity Campaign” of the year, making the River Bandits the only team to win that coveted award twice. For more information on the Quad Cities River Bandits, visit www.riverbandits.com or contact Jason Kempf at (563) 324-3000 or on his cell at (920) 960-6919.
ABOUT TBK BANK: TBK Bank, SSB, member FDIC, and equal-housing lender, is a subsidiary of Triumph Bancorp Inc offering consumer and commercial-banking products from 61 branches throughout Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. TBK Bank is committed to helping the communities it serves grow and prosper through financial contributions as well as volunteerism. Our team members take pride in giving back personally through countless volunteer hours. Our team members participate in local service-organizations, festivals, and events, as well as serving on the boards of directors and committees at many area schools, hospitals, and community groups.https://www.tbkbank.com.
