Jacksonville Night at Busch Stadium is just over one month away and organizers say this year’s event looks to offer a broad look at the community.
Shelley Singleton of Jacksonville Night at Busch has announced that the Jacksonville Drum Line Institute will be performing on the concourse level at Busch Stadium before the game and will be featured on the Jumbotron scoreboard as well.
Singleton says both the kids and the director of the Jacksonville Drum Line Institute were thrilled with the chance to perform. “The kids were just so excited, just beside themselves and Chip Davis does a great job with that group. He had told me, like a week before he’d gotten my email that he was just really hoping the kids would have some kind of a special opportunity this summer.
Maybe do something crazy like even play at Busch Stadium. He got my email and I got a rapid response of yes we’ll be there. So he said he was just so excited and the kids are elated and, that’s really what this is all about. It’s not just a baseball game, it’s bringing our community together and creating memories and experiences for children and families that they wouldn’t have otherwise had.”
Also this year, Christine Good-Deal, Principal at the Illinois School for the Deaf, will be signing God Bless America and the National Anthem on the Jumbotron before the game.
Singleton says every year a group of crazy baseball fans attend Jax Night from the Jacksonville Community Center for the Deaf and she is excited for them to have Christine Good-Deal signing at the game.
Singleton says Jacksonville Night at Busch feels honored to have State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer throwing out the first pitch of the game although she says rumor has it that several of C.D.’s friends have been ribbing him pretty hard about not messing up the throw.
Singleton says tickets still remain for the event and groups are welcomed and encouraged. “Ticket sales are going slow but steady. I don’t want you guys to wait though because the ones I don’t sell I have to return or purchase them myself and I don’t want to have to do that. So I’m trying to get most of them all sold by the end of the month.
We have some great opportunities though, Blue Cross Blue Shield has reserved fifty tickets and they have employees buying them, Bound to Stay Bound has sold about thirty tickets for their employees. So people are trying to get groups together, and if you’re trying to do that please work on it this week or over the weekend, get your group together and get those tickets so you can all sit together. But it’s going to be a great time and I can’t wait.”
Singleton says the May 14th date and 1:15 start time should make for a perfect day weather-wise for the game. She says after organizing the game all these years, she has been told that Jacksonville is pretty unique when it comes to Jacksonville Night at Busch.
“I would say too that Jacksonville Night is very different than a lot of the other groups that have come together. Because the direct sales guys at the Cardinals have told me that they don’t really have a whole town that does this. It’s usually a company or a sporting group or something like that. But to have a community get together and do this is very unusual so we should all be very proud of that fact.”
Tickets for Jacksonville Night at Busch Stadium are available now and can be ordered online at jaxnight.com. Tickets are $58.00 per person if ordered online, or you can save a little by stopping by Petefish, Skiles & co. Bank on South Main in Jacksonville for only $55.00.