A new non-profit based in Efland is looking to bring a new athletics park complex to the region.

The Meridian Community Foundation recently shared a post revealing its founders have acquired 38 acres of land off West Ten Road and Bushy Cook Road with the goal of building a community park with athletic fields and gymnasium. Run by Efland resident and former president of the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce Craig Lloyd, the non-profit aims to raise money and receive support to make the idea come to fruition.

Lloyd says he’s been pursuing a development with baseball and softball fields for years, having raised three daughters in the area who played softball. Growing up in Orange County himself and playing sports in the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association, he says the idea of having a sports complex with such fields has long been a need. As the Town of Hillsborough considers developing the land where the three Collins Ridge ballparks currently sit off Orange Grove Road, Lloyd says the need has become even greater.

“Since I was young, the idea was to have a location of our own [for games,]” he says. “The thought was it’d be nice to have just one complex we go to.”

Lloyd credits the initial spark for the complex, which he calls Patriots Park, to a conversation he had with his friend Donnie Dement, in which Dement shared long-time plans to build new ballfields and replace the Old Efland School’s gymnasium. As he learned about the many times attempts to replace the popular gym fell through, Lloyd says he felt moved to act.

“There are times in your life where things flick a switch,” he says, “and I said ‘I’m going to do what I can to put these two [ideas] together.'”

Now, with the land official acquired and fundraising efforts underway, Lloyd’s dream of Patriots Park is beginning to come together. He says the goal is for the park to largely be run through private donations and grants earned by the Meridian Community Foundation. Since earning the deed in late November, Lloyd has gotten lots of outreach from community members who have shared ideas on how to use the land and affirmation of how much they’d like to see a park with these resources.

The full scale of Patriot Park will be completed in three phases of construction, according to Lloyd. Baseball and softball fields will be in the initial phase, which he says could break ground in as few as six months. Next will come the construction of a multipurpose field before the final phase of a community center with a gym. Lloyd says his non-profit is developing an advisory board to help with the project, which will help determine the best use of the land and what other resources Patriots Park could offer.

Photo via the Meridian Community Foundation.

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