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!

Ground Breaking!

Finally, we were able to hold our official Ground Breaking ceremony with the Governor of SC, along with many other legislators and Rock Hill citizens excited about the park!  We were blessed to have so many in attendance and great coverage from local media!

Those that spoke were:
Mayor John Gettys
Governor Henry McMaster
US Representative Ralph Norman
SC Representative Gary Simrill
Winthrop President Dan Mahoney
World Gold Medalist Special Olympics Champion Athlete Josh Myers

Many others joined us in the digging of the first soil.  Due to the rain we were across the street on Winthrop's property, they are so welcoming!

2018 update on the park's progress

2018 update

In early 2018, we seemed to be moving quickly and released the following info:

Phase One, in addition to infrastructure improvements, will include a “miracle” baseball field which will be custom-designed to help prevent injuries. The rubberized turf fields accommodate wheelchairs and other assertive devices. A playground is also part of the first phase which has an overall budget of approximately $1.775 million, including the $550,000 from the City’s share of accommodations taxes used to encourage tourism. The Foundation is raising the remaining $1.225 million. It is projected that funds will be in place for the park to be under construction by Summer 2018.

Future phases of the park are expected to include another baseball field, multipurpose fields, walking trails, shelters, additional parking and retail space, such as a coffee shop, to employ people with disabilities.

Rock Hill Miracle Park Leadership Team: Warren Norman, chair; Kennedi Christopher, Jamey Dagenhart, Alice Davis, Freddy Faircloth, Sig Huitt, J. Robert Hyman, Mary Poole, Mark Sexton, Michelle Shaffer, John Taylor and David Williams.

In April we saw an updated site plan and realized that a summer date for phase 1 was not going to happen. We were still waiting the approval of the State of SC since Winthrop's land is state property.

Also in the beginning of 2018, we started to reach out to major donors and got some big commitments early on, showing the community's support and passion for our developing park:

After these big players committed a total of nearly $2,000,000, we had more come on board, including our first two third-party fundraisers that committed to raising money during the fall of 2018!

The Junior Welfare League raised $80,000 in the fall of 2008!!!!!

May 2008 Renderings!  

After this plan was first talked about during a Kiwanis meeting in the Palmetto Room, it started to hit the news. This story aired on Charlotte station WBTV.
WBTV story

Scott Cunningham and others pitched a playground idea to us and we chose Gametime and Scott Cunningham to complete our project!  The first images show the rectangle shape, 100 feet long!

Since we were getting close to starting our project, we had some "Coming Soon" signs created. We were getting ready to go!


In June we talked with Bruce Brumfield of Founders Federal Credit Union.  He had quite the story of the experience of what it was like to be in a wheelchair just last year.  He knows the need for this and they committed $500,000!  We added them to the list of donors!

David and Alice visited the Myrtle Beach Miracle Field and Savannah's Playground in the summer of 2008. While there, we met with Gary Schaal who is a past president of the PGA!  They are creating a golf project in Myrtle Beach to serve veterans and those who are disabled. We hope to have some sort of partnership one day.

June 2019

Upon viewing the site, it was determined that a low-lying area had to be avoided, so the playground lost a corner and we had a new site plan!

In July we had the first draft of the agreements ready for the City and Winthrop to sign.  Warren was creating our first budget and we started talking about hiring an Executive Director to coordinate all the moving pieces and do more fundraising for us. There was talk of the fields being larger to hold games for older kids like at Cherry Park with PRT; what the donor wall area should look like; how a golf piece could be a part of the project, etc. Smaller donors started coming in...things were rolling!

In August of 2008 we received the first renderings of what the buildings might look like!

We began conversations about getting a mascot for the park and considered using Booker the Baseball from Warren Norman's Baxter's Bunch series,but after discussion with the Foundation Board, we decided it would be best to probably wait on that.

Fall 2018

- Website was created by JEWEL; brochures were printed; downpayment was made on a mascot. Teachers in Rock Hill Schools were made aware of the project;  Leslie Pursley and Tara Parks stepped up to help us by serving as a link for the teachers. We spoke with the Special Services Associate Superintendents as well.

The first box of T-shirts were ordered and folks loved getting them to wear around town!

In October we got word that the Springs-Close Foundation and family members were committing $500,000!  We are rolling with donations coming in from individuals, too!

We also heard from Warren Norman Company that they are not only donating the development piece of the project but are also committed to donating $250,000!  We are beyond blessed!

As 2018 ended, we were waiting on approval from Winthrop  on the contract for the use of their land and interviewed applicants for the Executive Director position, which will be around 25 hours a week, part-time.

2017 History of the Miracle Park

March 2017 – We made a presentation to Parks, Recreation, and Tourism and it was received well.  They want to be a part of it, run the leagues, maintain the park, etc., once it is completed.  

August 2017 – We finally got the official word that Winthrop and the City were on board!  

September 2017 - A presentation by Warren Norman and David Williams to the City Council led to a $550,000 commitment to help build the infrastructure of the park and the facilities. 

The First Site Plan was released in 2017. 

November 2017 - a logo was created!  And the media started to hear about it. A few small articles were released.  We started to look for grant opportunities and worked with the City on what that would look like and how that would make a difference in paying for the park. The cost was now set at $4,000,000, but the land was valued at $2,000,000, for a total of a $6,000,000 budget. 

We soon realized that this logo couldn't work since this is not officially a city park like the others, so we eventually changed it. 

We started to tell organizations about our park and explained the fundraising element of it and why the breakdown works. 

This was an important step which allowed the community to see that this is a program of The Disabilities Foundation which serves MaxAbilities.  It's a public/private partnership.