Athlete Highlight: Travis

Travis, 25 years old, has played Miracle League for four seasons, and one word his family uses to describe Miracle Park is inspired. What they love most is the joy that fills the park, from the athletes and volunteers to the families, crowd, and even the therapy dogs that visit. Everyone is simply happy to be part of the community.

Through Miracle League, Travis has grown in confidence and independence. Last season he caught a ball for the first time, and now he can hit the ball without a tee. Being part of the league also gives him time with peers and the chance to be on the field without his mom right beside him, knowing his friends are there to help if he needs it. Because Travis isn’t eligible for many daytime programs, Miracle League gives him a safe and fun way to stay active and connected to his community and friends.

The Padres is Travis' team, they play on Wednesday nights.

For Travis’ family, this opportunity is incredibly meaningful. For years they heard many “can’ts”, that things wouldn’t be safe or possible.  His mom says, "There are many things that we know he will not be able to do. We've been told no so many times. "He's a liability" and "He wouldn't be safe." We've have had to accept that while some of his best friends play college and now pro football he would be on the sidelines. He'd be the biggest smile on the sideline, but the field, with his friends, wasn't a possibility. With Miracle League he gets to be free from Mom and on the field while his family gets to come and cheer. That's something he didn't have before and he does now. Thanks to Miracle Park he has a light to shine in."

Travis also loves spending time on the playground, especially swinging with his nieces and nephew, and his family says the inclusion of people of all ages is what makes Miracle Park so special. They are deeply thankful for the volunteers who make the games possible and for Terry Hagen, who they say has a heart of gold. 

Phase 2 and 3 updates

Phase 2 is under construction 

Click here to learn more about 

Miracle Park's next phases and view renderings.

The next park phase of the park will include:

• A large 60x40 yards multi-purpose field suitable for flag football, bocce, tennis, soccer, lacrosse, kickball, basketball, volleyball, pickleball, and other programming

• A second Miracle League baseball field

• A 2,600-square-foot Education Building, providing indoor space f
  
  or programming, theme nights, training, workshops, meetings, dances, parties, arts and crafts, adaptive equipment storage, and more

• Additional parking

• A programed therapeutic fishing pond with Walking Trails

Watch below to learn WHY this park is so important!

Phase 3

In addition, an 8200-square-foot retail Space is being built at the corner of Richmond Drive and Cherry Road. This space is being funded and operated by MaxAbilities to train, employ, and serve people of all abilities.  This will include meaningful workforce development opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Through this retail space, Miracle Park aims to provide education, coaching, resume-building, and pathways to permanent employment.

Our partnership with MaxAbilities of York County, whose mission is to maximize abilities by Teaching, Empowering, Advocating, and Mentoring, brings invaluable expertise in inclusive workforce development. MaxAbilities is committed to supporting future tenants with job coaching and employee placement services to ensure all individuals have the opportunity to thrive in the workplace.

Summer Fun!

Wow! What a GREAT start to the summer! We have instituted several new programs this summer and have served 134 members of our community in new and exciting ways - and we're only halfway through the summer! Read below to see all about our new programs:

Mosaics at Miracle: Participants came 4 weeks in a row to make different themed mosaic creations based on different themes. We had 9 participants each week. They enjoyed making mosaics of animals, beach scenes, Christmas scenes, and one week of free choice mosaics.

Dig and Discover: Eleven participants came to the park to dig and find raw rocks and minerals and then have them tumbled and polished to discover new treasures! They got to make and crack geodes, and dig for dinosaur fossils!

Fun Fridays: A new program for older teens and adults had 22 participants playing bingo in June! For July the plan is to do Music Bingo, and in August, they will have Trivia!

Salad Day with Miracle Park partners Growing Joy: We got together to sing and enjoy some freshly harvested aquaponic lettuce grown fresh by some of our favorite friends in the TR program when they went on a field trip to Growing Joy Farm! A good time was had by all, even in the rain!

Tea Time! 22 participants came to High Tea at the park. What a fancy, fun time complete with fancy table cloths, tea, finger foods, fancy hats, and, of course, teddy bears!

Sensory-Friendly Playtime: Perhaps our most needed and most popular new program so far! We had 52 participants at these two sessions! Miracle Park is for ALL, and we like to include everyone, but sometimes inclusion can look differently! In order to include some of our friends, we need to create protected spaces for them. Often times our beloved park is so crowded that it is too overstimulating for some of our friends, so we decided to close the playground for two short periods in order to give them the space they need to be able to enjoy our facilities. Our community was GREAT about this! While we did advertise on our sign and social media, inevitably, some people came to play and did not know that the playground area of the park was closed to the public. These families respected the need for some friends to need a smaller setting to enjoy the playground. THIS is inclusion!  

Stay tuned for an update at the end of summer on other new programs!

Thanks for supporting Miracle Park! If you'd like to donate to help aid our expansion and continued commitment to creating a place for EVERYONE to BELONG - donate on our website: miracleparkrockhill.com

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.

Aug 14 update

Construction is still progressing!  But we sure would love the rain to go away to complete it sooner!  Stay tuned!  Mark your calendar for Sept 18, 4-7pm for the Grand Opening! 

Thanks to Bob Russell for our overhead shots! 

July 1 update

 

Phase One is well on it's way!  In the past two weeks we have seen the dugout roofs installed, more playground pieces in stalled, the donor area starting to form, insides of buildings continuing, and behind the scenes signs, sculptures, design happening.

BUT, that's not all!!! 

Importance of Outside Play for Children with Autism

Importance of Outside Play for Children with Autism

By: Terry Hagen, Recreation Leader
Parks, Recreation & Tourism

Want to volunteer?  Coach?  Be a buddy?  Play in the Miracle League?  Fill out this survey.

Unstructured play is critical in the development of ALL children, but children on the Autism spectrum play very differently than other children. Many of them struggle with stimulation in play spaces that cause them to respond in ways that can be disruptive. The way they react might include flapping, pacing, screaming, throwing what looks like a temper tantrum or harming themselves. They also tend to play off to themselves, they don’t like loud noises, they line their toys up, they repeat the same action over and over and they struggle with imaginative play.

Because of this, many families with children on the spectrum might not feel comfortable taking their children places because they also don’t want to disrupt other families from their activities.

Miracle Park will be a place for ALL children to play together as one unit. Since it is geared towards inclusive play, many of the families who will take their children there are dealing with some of the same behaviors and obstacles as other parents who will also be there, so since they are all accustomed to these issues, no one will feel disrupted. The feeling of inclusion that is so important for children is also VERY important to caregivers because it’s comforting to be around others in similar situations.

Because children on the spectrum struggle with over stimulation, the more exposure they have to play spaces, the more accustomed they will become to the sights, sounds and structure of Miracle Park. Building exposure can help lessen the struggles and they can learn to respond to different noises, sounds, and environments. So, the more parents expose their child to Miracle Park, the more the child will be able to adapt to various stimulators.

Miracle Park has been designed with all these important things in mind. The colors are from a playful color palette but are not over stimulating. The park will have interactive play equipment that focuses on play but also includes activity that utilizes all 5 senses, movement, and balance. IF the child happens to become overstimulated, there is a place where the child can go to calm down.

Miracle Park will also have signage that includes letters, words, and pictures to promote communication skills. Many children on the Autism Spectrum and their families already use the PECS system to communicate. PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. Having letters, words and pictures at the park will allow the family to continue communicating with their child they way they typically do at home.

Miracle Park will be completely fenced in and all playground equipment is built in an area that provides a complete line of vision from all areas so parents can see their child anywhere on the playground and know they are safely fenced in.

All equipment is also spread out to allow room for play without a child being overwhelmed and without feeling overcrowded.

Playing outside in the natural light of the sun is much healthier than artificial lighting. Children spend most of their day in school with fluorescent lighting or on computers/tablets with lights that can overstimulate. The best medicine for that type of overstimulation is natural lighting.

Children on the spectrum pick up on the moods and anxieties of their parents and siblings. Many times, the family is too worried about how the child will “fit in” or behave in public settings, that they don’t enjoy their time together. Children on the spectrum can pick up on that anxiety and feed off the energy of the family. At Miracle Park, parents and siblings can all relax and enjoy playtime in a safe, secure, nonjudgmental, accessible setting.

The playground will be free of charge. Many families have limited income and parents struggle to find affordable activities for their child to safely play.
Providing a park where ALL children can play for free lifts one extra burden off the families.

For the children on the spectrum who don’t have back yards to play in or who spend the whole day confined to their desk at school, having a free open field that is securely enclosed to play and run around in is an ideal way to release pent up energy.

Many typical playgrounds allow for plenty of big muscle play. All children, especially children on the spectrum, also need manipulative play, pretend play, sensory play, quiet play, and creative play. Miracle Park has the ability and the equipment to provide all of this and more to everyone.

Miracle Park will also have Yalp interactive equipment such as the Sona Arch and Memo Pillars where they must use a variety of senses to play along. These activities also help with following instructions because they are given verbal cues to see what the next part of the “game” will be. 

Playground Features

Want to learn more about some pieces at our playground being installed this fall and how they can benefit all that use them? Click below to learn about individual pieces.

Merry-go-ALL

RoxALL SeeSaw

The Arch Swing

Sensory Spinner

Swings

The Yalp Sona

The Yalp Memo

Musical Elements

Outdoor Exercise Equipment

Zip Line your way!

Sensory Cove Climber

The Inclusive Whirl

The Sensory Dome

Want to see a full video overview of the playground and park? This is dated, but the playground hasn't changed much.

A big thanks and shout out to Comporium who is helping fund the playground to make this unique, one-of-a-kind playground happen in Phase One!

Once it's open the City of Rock Hill's PRT department will operate and maintain this facility as they do the other city parks! Thank you Rock Hill, we are blessed to live in a city that supports ALL people with ALL abilities!