Ground Breaking on final phases

Construction has begun on phases 2 and 3 of the Miracle Park!!!  It is on track to open early 2026.

Today we celebratied with athletes, friends, donors, elected officials, Winthrop and MaxAbilities staff, and the Lt. Governor of SC!  We heard from Representative Heath Sessions about what the park means to him and his family as a dad of two boys that have different abilities, Warren Norman, developer and what's to come, President Edward Serna on the connections with Winthrop, Mayor John Gettys spoke about how the park benefits the people of Rock Hill and beyond, and US Representative Ralph Norman invited us to come together to break the ground to start to build the final phases!

Lucas McFadden with CN2 was there to capture the day.  

Miracle Park Ground Breaking 2025 - Final Phases

Sponsors of the Miracle Park

We have over 550 donors that have given in some way to build the Miracle Park!  We are so grateful to them!  We have raised over $8 million and need another $2 million.  Please reach out if you can help in any way.  There is no gift too small!

Please click here to see all our sponsors and consider joining them to help us build Phase 2!

List of Our Sponsors - Miracle Park Rock Hill 

$100,000+ Sponsors

$75,000 Sponsors

$50,000 Sponsors

$25,000 Sponsors

$10,000 Sponsors 

For sponsors less than $10,000 please visit our Website.

PRT - David Boone Advisory Award

 Our Executive Team was recently honored by The City of Rock Hill's Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department at their annual Volunteer Dinner. This is what they had to say about our team:

This committee and its partners has imagined, fundraised, developed and built Miracle Park phase one which opened in September of 2021. In 2022, they have continued to fundraise and plan for phase two. They have put their hearts, soul and hard work into making Miracle Park not only a dream but a reality that has become a destination for families, seniors and youth of all abilities.

In 2016, one of these members traveled to Greenville to watch his nephew play in a Miracle League game. That was the inspiration he needed to come back and discuss with family and friends his idea of building a miracle field in Rock Hill. Having grown up playing sports and now with his children being involved in sports he knew Rock Hill needed a field for athletes of all abilities to play. It didn’t take long for them to begin the implementation of this idea. Connections were made and others jumped at the chance to be involved in something so great. A committee was formed…a builder, a developer, a fundraiser, community leaders…a meeting was held with York County disabilities foundation members, sports commission members, city staff members, more community leaders and from there, the possibilities continued. The idea was brought forth to put the field on property that already held a city park. Additionally, Winthrop University was approached about the adjacent property. Through many discussions and meetings and nearly a year later, a public/ private partnership was formed.

Years later and millions of dollars raised, this field became not just a field but an entire park. Through so many efforts, the first phase included an all-inclusive playground with innovative play equipment, restrooms, an office and concessions building, a multi-purpose field and of course the Miracle Field. This group made sure to go beyond the norm and complete the requirements needed to be awarded universal design standards. The second and third phases are being planned and will be just as exciting as the first.

The park has thousand of visitors a month. From Miracle League, Benji Ball, youth softball games, playground time, story time, the Book Mobile, kite flying, kickball, many more events and programs the park is busting at the seams. If you have been there, you know. What a wonderful sight!!

This committee has worked tirelessly to host events and fundraisers to benefit the park. They have been instrumental in getting the community involved throughout the whole process. Their dedication and time has been one that has built a place where everyone belongs and no matter your ability…you have a place to play.

I’d like to present the David Boone Advisory Award to the Miracle Park Executive Committee. This committee includes David Williams, Alice Davis, Warren Norman, Kennedi Christopher, Kylie Carroll, John Taylor, Michelle Schaffer, Sig Huitt and Jack Leitner.

We are very thankful to the PRT team for all they do for Miracle Park and are honored to accept this award!

Terry Hagen - Recreation Programmer, City of Rock Hill

As you start to visit the Miracle Park and have questions you will most likely meet Terry.  She is coordinating the Miracle League and other sports out at the park for the City of Rock Hill's Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department.  Read her story below to learn more about this wonderful woman and how it's always been her dream to allow all people the opportunity to play together even since she was a little girl! 

Terry Hagen - Recreation Programmer

When I was little, my family moved to SC from New York.   My parents sent me to a church day camp one summer and there was a staff member who brought her daughter Denise to work with her.  Denise was much older than the campers but played with us and was very childlike. One day it was raining and for some reason we had our shoes off, and Denise needed help buckling her sandals.  When I realized that she didn’t know how to buckle her shoes, I spent the whole afternoon teaching her to buckle her own sandals.  She was SO happy when she finally did it on her own.  

When I got home, I asked my parents about her, they explained what Down Syndrome was and, in that conversation, I learned that when I was a young child, my father was a Special Education teacher at the inner-city schools.   I remember him being a teacher but didn’t know too much about his class because I was so young.   When we moved to South Carolina, he gave up teaching, so it never came up until I met Denise.  

After that summer, I began elementary school and our class had to walk past the Special Education class to get to the playground.  This was the very first day of school I asked the teacher why they couldn’t play too.   The response was something along the lines of “that’s the Special Ed class.”   It made me sad to see those children watch us go by and not be able to play too.   Then the next year, some of the classrooms moved and the Special Ed class was now in a room that had a window that looked out to the playground.  I hated seeing them watch us and not be able to join us.  I always remembered that and never understood why they couldn’t join us. 

At some point, the teachers must’ve been tired of my questions and they allowed me to “volunteer” in that class during recess one day a week.  That led to volunteering with Special Olympics as a teenager and I never stopped.

Flash forward several years and I had to get a “summer job” so I began working in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities.  I was 19 years old, and I worked 2-10pm Monday through Friday.   I took those women EVERYWHERE!    I absolutely fell in love and working with people with disabilities became my life.   Flash forward 34 years and I am still working with some of the same people I worked with at 19.  

I’ve worked in group homes, day programs, case management and recreation.  In each job, my motto has always been “Why can’t they do it too?”   Now, I get to make some of those why’s a reality.

2019 progress

In the beginning of 2019, we hired our part-time Executive Director, Kylie Carroll!  This was a turning point in our progress, to have a staff person to keep all sections of the Miracle Park team together.  She started the year by learning about what we were doing, researching, and getting to know folks.  She is a wonderful woman for the job. She has a background in special and early childhood education and is a proud mother of 5!  What mom can't coordinate something like this when she coordinates 5 children!?!  Kidus, her youngest,  is such a sweetie!  He's been a face in many of our promotions. He happens to have Down Syndrome, so she can really relate to parents and what they want for their children, too!  We are blessed to have her represent us in the community!

In January we ordered merchandise, which made it even more exciting to share our message with  donors and at special events.  We made bags of goodies for our donors; and we see shirts and mugs throughout the community all the time!

We benefitted from two events during Come-See-Me 2019.  In the Road Race, folks were pushed by the F3 group partnered with Need for Speed.

And a baseball game highlighted Miracle Park and allowed us to have a table set up with volunteers.

We continued to work with Winthrop to create our art pieces for the donor area, including auditory and tactile walls, the donor wall, a sculpture, sensory path, and more!

We have so many partners we can't even list them all!


 



We reached out to the county through H-Tax and A-tax, but had no luck after presenting our info.

Ms. Davis,

Thank you for taking the time to submit your Hospitality Tax application to the York County Hospitality Tax Committee.  Everyone on the Committee felt the Park will be a great addition to the Rock Hill park system.  The Committee did not see the return to the unincorporated area that generates the Counties Hospitality tax revenue.  Because of that the Committee voted unanimously against funding the project. 

If anything changes that you feel like increases the impact to the unincorporated please feel free to resubmit another application.

Thank you again!

Kevin 

Kevin Madden , CPAAssistant County ManagerTreasurer/CFO York County Government

We continued conversations with the city and state representatives with land lease info.  This continues to be what holds us back from getting started.  We feel like we are being held back during this process, but SO much good came out of 2019 as we were "on hold."  One big step was getting all things ironed out about how the park will work and run with the City of Rock Hill.  The City already hires folks of all abilities for their parks and this will give another place for them to potentially find work.

Roseanne and Chrissi, our "art leaders," work on the tiles that will go into the bathrooms painted by kids across Rock Hill, through Special Ed Rock Hill Special Ed teachers, Tara Park and Leslie Pursley.  These are going to make the park so colorful and fun, even  on the inside!

We had a fundraiser in the spring called Savor the Flavors.  It raised over $40,000!  Thanks, community!  You are a great support!

In the spring, we chose the contractor, Leitner Construction, that would be working with us.  We are excited to know they will take good care of us throughout the project and build it with passion and pride!  Below are Jack Leitner, Heath Sessions (Moorhead Brothers), Kenny Smith (Leitner), and develop Warren Norman at the Fezziwig Ball.

Also, while waiting on lease agreements to be finalized, we met Ryan Doherty with Progressive AE.  What a great relationship we found in him!  There is a new concept in the world called Universal Design and he was instrumental in getting that started.  He has already played a big part in helping design a YMCA up north and now he's not only helping us but covering the cost for it and donating his own time and resources.  There are only about 13 certified places around the world and only 4 buildings in the United States.  We will be the first certified park in the WORLD!  Thanks,  Ryan and Sandra Doherty!

In June we thought we were close and planned to break ground in July or August; but, looking back, we know we were postponed due to the State trying to make sure every i is dotted and every t is crossed.

Alice went to Denver in June and presented with the mayor and other representatives about the Miracle Park and other great things happening in Rock Hill.  We were named one of the country's 20 All American Cities!

In July we held a meeting with those wanting to play a part in helping to build and raise funding and awareness for the park!  We are excited about all the folks wanting to help; over 50 signed up.  The meeting was great!  Everyone shared why they were there and their passion for the park being built. 

PICTURE OF THE FIRST MEETING

This is the first two organizational charts of this group that was formed. 

We spoke at other events around town, getting the word out about what will be happening REAL SOON!  David and Alice spoke at Rock Hill Brewery.

FINALLY in November we were able to sign the leases with Winthrop and the City of Rock Hill!  Representatives from the city, Winthrop, press, Miracle Park, and others came together at Winthrop to sign on this VERY exciting, LONG awaited day!

 Nov 2 - FanFest at Winthrop was where we had our first celebration of breaking ground!  We had Leitner and Moorhead Brothers bring out equipment to have on site and we celebrated and did a press release.

Then, on December 11, when the Governor could join us, we held  an official groundbreaking with MANY legislators and community members.  It was a HUGE success! 

Moorhead Brothers was the company that came in to knock down 7 acres of overgrown brush and many dead trees to clear the way for the park.  We cannot thank them enough for DONATING their services to us;  this was over $130,000 worth of work!  Thank you, Moorhead Brothers and Heath Sessions, for leading the way!  We appreciate you and ALL our sponsors and partners! 

In December we were the recipients of the Good Folks grant and got to present who we are in front of hundreds of people!  

The Fezziwig Ball was held during ChristmasVille in early December and we had a blast! The awareness and funding were  wonderful!  The community is really getting behind us on support.  We have over 400 donors at this point!

We have been out and about at many events, sharing our message, and made and released our first videos.  Comporium is working on some additional ones  for early 2020.   We have a lot of "future" athletes wanting to help us get our message out!  We are getting so excited!  Ready for the completion of phase 1 in 2020~soon!