CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- The tentpoles of the baseball community in Charlottesville are convening at Three Notch’d Brewing Company on Wednesday night to lend a hand towards a noble goal. 

Central Little League is hosting a Benefit Dinner for the Aidan Peters Field Lighting Fund at the Second St. brewery, and all proceeds will be put towards the $100,000 fundraising target to erect light towers for the fields at Pen Park, so that practices and games can be hosted later into the evening as the season moves toward the fall months. 

The fund is named in memory of Aidan Peters, a former Central Little League Player who later starred for the Charlottesville High School Black Knights.  Peters played four seasons at CHS, graduating in May of 2023 before losing his battle with metastatic ewing sarcoma in August of that year.   

Charlottesville Clerk of Court Llezelle Dugger, and Commissioner of the Revenue Todd Divers, both friends of the Peters family, helped jump start fundraising efforts to put the lights on the field that Aidan and his father played many hours on throughout the young man’s life.  Divers’ sons played with Aidan, and Dugger was close friends with friends with Aidan’s mother, Rebecca.   

“Aidan was and continues to be a light for us all” Dugger said.

Rebecca and her husband Adam asked for donations to help put lights on the field at Aidan’s memorial service at First Presbyterian Charlottesville, and the fundraising began from there. 

Divers mentioned that this dinner has been in the works for a while.  At long last though, the venue is right, the place is right, and the vibrant Baseball community of Charlottesville, from its local Little League commissioners and school coaches to those within the Virginia Cavaliers’ Baseball program, to Major League Baseball Hall of famers who hail from the area, has come together to make January 14th a special night. 

Said Divers of the Charlottesville Baseball community, “it is a fabulous, wonderful community…this whole thing has made that clear.” 

Miller School of Albemarle Baseball Coach (and Hall of Fame Houston Astros Closer) Billy Wagner will be in attendance and has donated items to the evening’s silent auction.  Former Wahoos and World Series Champions Chris Taylor and Ryan Zimmerman have also donated items to the auction.  Many current members of the Virginia Baseball team have also signed items for the auction.   

New University of Virginia’s baseball coach, Chris Pollard will be in attendance and addressing the guests during the evening.  Pollard’s presence, and the generous donations of many other Charlottesville Baseball luminaries, underscores what Todd Divers believes to be a truth about this community. 

“They see a human story, they see a tragedy, and they want to help,” Divers said. “And that’s the Charlottesville community.” 

Tickets are for the event can be purchased through Venmo or on Eventbrite.