to develop ballpark
Life of Keith McHeffey inspired friends
to develop ballpark
By jane waterhouse
Staff Writer
If you build it, they will come. That was the belief of a small group of people who had the idea of building a ballpark in honor of their buddy, Keith McHeffey, and other Shore area victims of the 9/11 attacks.
One year and over 2,000 donations later, their dream is about to become a reality. Construction begins on Memorial Field Oct. 15 — a ballpark and monument estimated to cost more than $100,000, located adjacent to Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in Rumson. The new park will be built on the site of Piping Rock field, where athletes ranging in age from Pop Warner football to adult softball have gathered to practice and play sports for decades.
The project represents the most ambitious undertaking yet for the McHeffey Foundation, the 501(c)(3) charitable organization that bears the name of Keith McHeffey — a lifelong Rumson resident who worked in the World Trade Center as an equities trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.
"Keith was one of our best friends. We graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven together in 1988. He played football and baseball for the high school. Later we played on a men’s softball league at Piping Rock," explained Michael Panter of Shrewsbury, who founded the organization, along with several other McHeffey cohorts, including William Crow and Steven Kane of Rumson, Daniel Kelly of Little Silver, Gregg Kennedy of Shrewsbury, and Claudia Carney of Monmouth Beach.
Besides planning the sports field, the Foundation recently awarded a $2,500 scholarship to two graduating seniors at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School. "We chose recipients who demonstrated hard work and selflessness, on and off the field," said Crow, "since those were the qualities that defined Keith’s life."
But it’s Memorial Field that has the Foundation members dreaming big. The project calls for a complete renovation of the existing playing area. "Just about all of it is going to be redone," said Panter. "We’re regrading the entire field, ripping out the surface sod, and putting in a full irrigation system, new benches, bleachers and fences."
Behind the backstop, a spinnaker flagpole with crossbeams will act as the field’s anchor and centerpiece. The design incorporates a polished onyx stone inscribed in memory of residents who lost their lives on 9/11, and is surrounded by a walkway of intricate masonry and brickwork. "It’s been a difficult thing to organize, but the support we’ve gotten from people in the shore community has been overwhelming," Panter said. "In addition to donations, we’re relying on contractors discounting their usual prices — and in some cases even volunteering their time."
While McHeffey himself had no children, it pleases his friends to think that generations of kids will be able to enjoy the new field. "He always said that field [Piping Rock] needed a major overhaul," said Panter. "Dan Kelly and I keep picturing him, up there, laughing at us as we’re running around getting it all together."
Architectural plans for the new field will be unveiled at a cocktail party given by Panter at his Sycamore Avenue home tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. For more information write to [email protected]