{"id":139979,"date":"2026-03-16T21:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139979\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:15:14","slug":"west-deer-township-community-steps-up-after-tree-falls-onto-baseball-field-concession-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139979\/","title":{"rendered":"West Deer Township community steps up after tree falls onto baseball field concession stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday’s high winds<\/a> also left their mark on a baseball field in West Deer Township after a tree practically sliced a concession stand in two.<\/p>\n

At Bairdford Park, gratitude now surrounds the sports community and its damaged concession stand. It’s an institution and a big money maker for Deer Lakes Youth Baseball.<\/p>\n

Before the damage from Friday’s storm can even be cleaned up, even more inclement weather is rolling in.<\/p>\n

“It couldn’t be worse, but at the same time it couldn’t be better,” said Miste Wiegand, the Deer Lakes Youth Baseball Association Director of Communications.<\/p>\n

Only days away from the start of its opening season, the stand wasn’t in full use.<\/p>\n

“Rarely was anything plugged in. Our propane tanks aren’t hooked up,” she said.<\/p>\n

However, an estimated 100-foot tree crushed part of the building.<\/p>\n

“Like a foot over, it could’ve been catastrophic,” she said. “We have all of our paperwork, our roles and stuff, everything we need for our free Freedom Classic tournament every year.”<\/p>\n

From the events to games and much more, Wiegand said this space plays a big role in the spring baseball season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Any extra uniforms are kept in there. That’s where our meeting space is,” she said. “As far as a concession stand goes, obviously, that’s where a huge chunk of our income comes for the season.”<\/p>\n

But after the tree took out the side, the community stepped up.<\/p>\n

“[Residents were saying], ‘We can come. I will cut the tree up for you. I will help rebuild. I will donate paint,'” Wiegand recalled.<\/p>\n

“We cried for this, but then you cry again because you see how much people really do care and really want to help.”<\/p>\n

In this gloomy season, there’s warmth felt in hope of restoring what’s needed for springtime sports in a community that rallies around its kids.<\/p>\n

“We just want to be barefoot in Bairdford Park. That’s what we want to do.”<\/p>\n

According to the township, they expect to have the tree removed sometime on Monday. As for the other repairs, that will be up to the insurance company.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday’s high winds also left their mark on a baseball field in West Deer Township after a tree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[894,4662,73,75,74,22580],"class_list":["post-139979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-county","tag-baseball","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-windy-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}