New Britain herald., 1916-05-06
GREAT ENTHUSIAM
 FOR PLAYGROUND
St. Mary's Parishioners Show
 Deep Interest in Association

Steps toward the formation of an athletic association to be known as St. Mary's Athletic association were promulgated at meeting of dele gates from various societies connect ed with the church in the school hall last evening. The meeting was call led shortly after 8 o'clock by the
 pastor, Rev. John T. Winters, and
 for nearly two hours the matter was
 discussed pro and con. At the out
 set of the meeting the pastor ex-
 plained the reason for the play
 ground, which means thetraining of
 the boys and girls in the parish and
 further perpetuating them in the
 teachings of their church and faith.
 The present layout of the land at
 the Stanley street property affords
 the members of the association an
 opportunity of having one Of the
 most up-to-date playgrounds in the
 state, and although the land will, at
 some remote date, have to be used for cemetery purposes, Father
 Winters said that it was not believed that this would occur in the present generation. He outlined what plans
 he has formulated to date, which in
 clude the erection of a club house on the grounds, which will have accom-
 modations for men and women. On the ground floor there will be shower
 baths and a veranda and on the top floor there will be a waiting room and veranda for the ladies. The grounds will have tennis courts, base ball diamonds and eight or nine hole golf course. An efficient supervisor will be secured, one who is able to teach the games and also take care of the grounds. The pastor has a man in mind for the job. The ex- pense which the above items will kCod of $3,00O.
 An assessment of $2 year would be charged the active members of the association and, if at the end of the season there was deficit, a bazar or kirmiss could be arranged to cover this item. There will be two entrances built to the grounds, enc on Stanley street, near the Ship man school and the other on Allen street. There would be no need of persons entering on cemetery prop erty. Father Winters read a resOlu- tion which called for the formation of such an association, to be governed | by Catholics.
 No Sunday Sports.
 Father Winters said that since the | preliminary discussion had been held l on the matter, it had been put up to him whether or not Sunday sports would be permitted at the play grounds The pasor said that owing n1o dc o affair sanction could not be given to Sunday opening of the grounds. He also spoke in opposi- ton to Sunday baseball and other similar sports, for commercial pur- poses and which he said, create much l C disturbance on the Lords day. He | spoke of holding an opening day to | which admission would be charged, l the proceeds to be used toward l furthering the work. It was clearly 1 pointed out to the delegates that members of the association would l he admitted free to all events, but l others would be required to pay 1 their way. While the proposition is a Catholic institution, Father l Winters was in favor of all en- loving the good to be derived at the l grounds.
 In answer to a question by Dele gate Manning, Father Winters said 1 that the members of the association would join as individuals not from a society standpoint, but he was not opposed to having teams formed | in the playgrounds, which might be 1 named after any of the Catholic so- cieties in the church. He said that 1 none of the societies would be al- lowet to dictate the manner of con- ducting the association.
 Delegate F. c. Russell asked if it ! was the sense of the meeting for the various delegates to solicit mem berships in the association at s2 or s5. Father Winters said that he thought a more feasible plan was to issue envelopes at the services ir the church. requesting signatures of all who intended to join in the work and at a later date, a meet ing would b. held to complete the organization of the association. MT. Russell asked about the members in St Joseph's and St. Peters 1 church., who would be unable to get the envelopes. The pastor said that he believed these parishOners could be taken in later Patrick Me- Donough brought up the matter of 1 charging admission to non-taxable property. This had been called to his attention he said. MT. Russell said that in the Y. M. c. A. and South church both non-taxable pro- perties, entertainments were given regularly where a fee was demanded l at the door. J. W. Manning thought that laws were made to be broken
 Others who spoke in favor of the formation of the association were Miss Clark, Miss Anna Hayes, J.