By the numbers
600,000: Square footage of AstroTurf installed at the Athletes in Action complex, one of the largest synthetic turf projects in the U.S.
$1.7 million: Cost for the baseball stadium, which includes a 550-seat covered grandstand, lighted field, four bullpen mounds and multiple batting cages.
XENIA — Ryan Smith and his wife, Katrina, were devastated after she gave birth to twins three months prematurely, and their son, Grady, lived for just 52 hours. But the Erie, Pa., couple has turned a tragedy into a triumph.
The Smiths were inundated with friends wanting to know where they could send memorial donations. And knowing close friend and Athletes in Action baseball coach Matt Richter was having trouble raising the final $120,000 to complete the baseball stadium at the AIA headquarters in Xenia, they decided to set up a foundation for Grady and send the funds there.
But the Smiths — whose daughter, Gianna, Grady’s twin, just celebrated her first birthday — were in for a surprise after calling Richter with the news.
“I said, ‘Hey, Matt, what do you think about sending memorial donations to Athletes in Action?’ He said, ‘I think we’ve got a better idea,’ ” Ryan Smith said. “He talked it over with some people there and called me back and said, ‘What do you think about naming the field after your son?’ ”
The Grady Vincent Smith Foundation has helped Richter and AIA exceed their fundraising goal, and the stadium was completed with covered seating and christened “Grady’s Field” during a dedication ceremony Aug. 2.
“It’s meant a lot to us for our healing process, to know there’s been a purpose for his life,” Ryan Smith said.
He added of AIA: “I completely believe in this organization.”
He’s not the only one who supports AIA’s mission of sharing the Christian message through a sports platform. The ministry has built a massive athletic complex in just the last few years at the site of the former Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, funded completely by donations.
“Though they won’t necessarily reap the benefits of this (baseball) facility, their hearts are to see lives changed in this little town,” Richter said of the Smiths.
About the Author