Friends of Youngstown working with village leaders to improve grounds, grow community

FOY hard at work on several Youngstown fundraising initiatives

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Park improvements funded in 2025 through Greenway and municipal monies are starting to take shape in the Village of Youngstown.

At Veteran’s Park, ball field fence installation is well underway, with dugout enhancements to follow. Over at Falkner Park, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms are set to be constructed once the weather improves.

These projects were included in a 2025 proposal to the Niagara River Greenway Commission. The request was spearheaded by the Friends of Youngstown, in partnership with the Village of Youngstown.

Applicants sought and were awarded $240,993 from the Niagara County Host Community Standing Committee’s ad-hoc fund for municipalities that don’t receive regular Greenway funding. Monies will go toward phase one of extending the Greenway trail – ultimately connecting Fort Niagara State Park to Joseph Davis State Park ($92,315 for the Village of Youngstown trail connecting Fort Niagara State Park [northern border] to Youngstown Estates [southern border]); creating a walking/cycling loop within Veteran’s Park to connect the play activity centers, parking and dog park ($72,800); plus bathroom utilities ($15,700); 12 signs ($29,000); butterfly trail landscaping ($5,000); bike racks ($7,791), benches ($7,133), water stations ($6,953); and project engineering ($4,300).

The Village of Youngstown committed a total of $108,000 for the bathroom ($60,000), Department of Public Works labor ($40,000), and 10 shade trees ($8,000).

Friends of Youngstown raised $9,500 for the ball field renovations.

The nonprofit’s founder, Christine Rath, was tasked with “getting the Greenway Trail back on the table,” she said, “because I guess there was a couple years ago where Greenway actually came in, and everybody was very negative about their proposal from the community standpoint. I think because they felt like it was just being pushed through and without community input.

“And so, we formed a small subcommittee called River Trails, Roads and Rails, as part of Friends of Youngstown, to define what the residents want.”

This project is the latest in a series of initiatives carried out by the Friends of Youngstown.

Friends of Youngstown volunteers are working to make the village a better place for residents and visitors. (Photo courtesy of the Friends of Youngstown)

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Friends of Youngstown

When Rath returned to her hometown, she recognized the need for a funding mechanism to benefit the local community.

“Our goal is to support the municipality of Youngstown, 14174 ZIP code,” she said of Friends of Youngstown. “I grew up here, and I moved back (about five years ago). I volunteered to be on the Recreation Commission, and the Recreation Commission was actually doing fundraising for different village entities.

“But as the new mayor came on, Rob Reisman, we found out that municipalities aren't supposed to actually fundraise.”

Donations, of course, are super helpful, so, “I volunteered to head up the formation of a 501(c)(3), Friends of Youngstown, and we actually got all our paperwork approved and formed in April of 2023,” Rath said.

“Our goal is to represent the community and to act as a funding agent. A lot of times, municipalities, when they go for large grants such as the Greenway, they need to have community involvement demonstrated; they need to have alternate funding sources. We figured having a 501(c)(3) would encourage community members and business members to donate, because you get a tax deduction being that it's a nonprofit, versus just giving money to the village.

“I have to say, with Mayor Reisman and Deputy Mayor Stortecky, they've been so supportive of really bringing projects forward and really wanting to improve the village, not only from a recreation standpoint, but overall facilities, environment and roads.

“We act as a fundraising organization. We stimulate community interest and get the community involved by volunteering at different activities that we hold, and/or just bringing forward different events and such.”

Rath added, “We work with the YBPA and the (Upward Niagara) Chamber with promoting our events, and getting input on what events we should hold; and getting the businesses to support us. They sponsor us, they donate food, they give gift cards – different things like that – as we try to fundraise to actually improve the community.”

The impetus for these enhancements is simple: growth.

“There's studies that show, if you improve your recreation opportunities for a community, families will come – because they want to come to communities that are active, and they have fun things to do for their kids, and they feel this inclusiveness,” Rath said.

“Over the past, I would say probably more than 20 years, there hasn't been a lot of spending in the Village of Youngstown. It's just sort of been more status quo. But you've seen, ever since Rob Reisman and Rick Stortecky have led the charge here in the village, a lot more investment in the infrastructure, and more investment in recreation programs.

“There have been a lot of young families moving into the Village of Youngstown, even from Lewiston, and they've got a lot of kids, and we're sort of trying to bring back the Youngstown of old time. Not that we want to be Lewiston – because we don't. It's very business-focused there. A lot of activities. We still want to be our quaint Village of Youngstown; but we want to provide great programs, highlight our significance in history, and ensure that people have a good, active lifestyle here.”

Improving recreation

Rath said the ball field “fencing itself was probably as old and the same fencing that I played with when I was a kid back in the ’70s. It had degraded.”

Recreation Director Jeff Gruarin added, "The backstops – I can't even tell you how old they are. I've got to imagine they're almost original. They were falling apart. Spokes were sticking out at the ends, the bottom, the top; the dugouts were falling apart. The roof – it was just a mess. Everything about it. The look of it – it's the first thing you see when you drive down the street, is the fencing there, besides the rec. building there. It’s just so visible"

This was problematic for several reasons, not the least of which was “The Village of Youngstown, connected with the Town of Lewiston and we are now sharing a softball/baseball program together, where, instead of having individual communities doing their own baseball/softball programs, we're now sharing,” Rath said. “Those fields are used all summer long by the girls softball teams. So, we wanted to really improve the overall Veteran’s Park ball field in order to really be a good host for those games.”

Gruarin said, "The park, over the past two years now, we've raised money, which ended up going towards new fencing; so, a new backstop, new dugouts for field one – which is pretty much the main field that's used by the Town of Lewiston softball.

"The goal has always been to kind of revitalize that park and just bring it back and get kids there. Not so much as for programs, but for everything. It's an underutilized park, just trying to get families … somewhere for them to go and be able to spend a Friday night and have their kids in the park. They can sit under the pavilion and just kind of hang out. That has always been my vision for it."

Rath said, “The fencing is already started. It is probably 90% up already.”

She said DPW Superintendent Greg Quarantillo is “going to do some additional work on the dugouts to put some roofs on it … to make it nicer in the summertime – get the sun out of their eyes.”

Plus, “We'll start up our program that we have where people can sponsor banners that we’ll put on the new fencing, advertising businesses or memorials for folks.

“They likely will start to see the bathroom construction in Falkner Park this spring/summer. … And then, hopefully, by probably late-summer, you'll start to see some of the clearing work to be done for the actual trail. The village has got to go out and do their standard procurement process of getting three quotes” from contractors.

“Additional items that Greg may take on this summer is actually laying out some of the path on the roadway, because some of it is actually on the roads in the Village of Youngstown. So, you'll start to see some of the actual (bike path) paintings on the road.”

In the past two years, the Village of Youngstown embarked upon renovations to the recreation building – including the office and adjoining sidewalks – and basketball courts, as well as the completion of a nine-hole disc golf course and pickleball court at Veteran’s Park.

Mark your calendar

In addition to the recreation endeavors:

•“We've taken over the Nancy Price Memorial Run,” set for May 8, Rath said.

The Nancy Price Memorial Scholarship is given out each year to a graduating senior (a total of $8,000 over four years).

•“We've been doing a celebrity bartending event” in the summer, Rath said of FOY’s major fundraising event.

•“We've been co-sponsoring the trunk-or-treat now for the Village of Youngstown, for the Halloween party. And we've also sponsored ‘Christmas in the Village,’ ” Rath said.

•“We'll probably also be doing an event this year for ‘Save the Clock Tower,’ because the (Red Brick) clock tower is in really bad shape – but the community voice has been heard, and we want to save that as part of the history of the village,” she said.

FOY’s fundraising focus items for 2026 are listed at https://www.foy14174.com/general-5.

Stortecky said, “On behalf of the Village of Youngstown Board, I would like to express our great appreciation to Christine Rath and Friends of Youngstown for all they do in the village. In only two years since its inception, FOY has already improved the beauty and safety of the community, and has enriched the lives of Youngstown residents.”

Keep up with Friends of Youngstown at https://www.foy14174.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofYoungstown.