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.
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.
