A Summerland family has turned grief into a refurbished baseball diamond named for their late son, Hendriks Jon Taylor.
Hendriks spent many hours playing baseball in his hometown of Summerland, British Columbia, often with family by his side. His mother, Melissa Taylor, said he was sensitive, loving and funny.
“His best friend in the whole world was his dad,” she said to CBC.
Hendriks was diagnosed with a small brain tumour at age eight. Melissa Taylor said the diagnosis was not fatal, but it led to many challenges in school and social situations and caused him much suffering.
Hendriks died by suicide in the summer of 2024 at age 16.
“I can’t begin to describe the overwhelming loss and grief that we have faced since then,” Taylor said. “We miss him.”
His family decided to honour his memory by raising money to revitalize a local baseball diamond. Almost two years later, the diamond at Living Memorial Park has officially opened and has been renamed Field 96, after Hendriks’s jersey number.
One month before his death, Hendriks’s team took gold at the regional championships after a tough start to the season. The team was coached by his father, Jeff, and included his brother, Aksel.
“It was the field was a lifeline to make our way out of grief,” Taylor said.
The field, previously known as Field 2 at Living Memorial Park, had fallen into disrepair. The Taylor family launched an online fundraiser and applied for grants from the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen and the Jays Care Foundation, the charitable arm of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated through the fundraiser. The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen contributed $50,000 and Jays Care gave $185,000. Taylor said the project also received an estimated $250,000 in in-kind donations and labour.
“The Field 96 Legacy Project reflects the very best of the region, community-driven action, strong partnerships, and a shared commitment to youth well-being,” Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen chair Mark Pendergraft said in an email to CBC News.
“By investing in projects like this, the [RDOS] is strengthening opportunities for young people across the region while revitalizing Living Memorial Park as a place that fosters connection, pride, and lasting community impact.”
The entire field was stripped and levelled last August. Crews added new grass, dirt and fencing, built new bathrooms, installed a new scoreboard and added a batting cage. An access road was also built around the park.
“It’s really been a major transformation to the field. It’s night and day down there,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the family has also applied for more funding to install stadium lighting.
Barry Hotson, president of the Summerland Minor Baseball Association, said the field means more to the community than a new baseball diamond.
“It creates a safe, welcoming place for kids and adults to play sports. It gives young people a constructive outlet and it restores pride in the community and the Summerland Minor Baseball Association,” he said.
“Recreational sports and team play provides so many positives to our youth and has a long-lasting influence on their lives and their futures.”
Taylor said almost 1,000 people came out on Saturday to watch the first game played on the diamond. She said watching the first pitch and hearing the crowd erupt in applause was “healing.”
“I felt a lot of love and community spirit.”
Taylor said Hendriks would have been thrilled to see the new field.
“He’d be so happy that his friends, his baseball team and all the other kids coming up, really for generations to come are going to have this beautiful park to play on … and that’s really what this is about,” Taylor said.
“It’s for the kids of Summerland to have a park that they feel like they have pride in, that when they go there, they know [they] are cared about and valued and our families and our community built this for [them].”
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