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Contributed File Photo Phil Skinner/The Atlanta Journal Constitution Eight-year-old Trey Quinn makes his way to third base during a game at a special baseball park in Alpharetta, Ga.
A plan to build a baseball field in Dalton, Ga., for children with special needs is one step closer to reality.
Last week, the state announced a $100,000 grant for the Miracle League field, a special rubberized baseball field that would allow children who ordinarily couldn't play sports to take part in games.
The grant, along with a $50,000 donation, brings the Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department closer to the $350,000 needed to build the park, director George Page said. Now comes a fundraising effort.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources selected the Dalton project out of 52 statewide applicants. The department awarded about $1 million to 14 parks projects across the state.
The Dalton field is part of a larger sports park planned near the intersection of Georgia Highway 201 and Mount Vernon Road. Totaling about 98 acres, the facility will have three regular baseball fields along with walking trails, playground equipment and a fishing pier, Mr. Page said.
"We're looking at everything to make sure it's all accessible to children with special needs," he said.
That means lower windows at concession stands, playgrounds that can accommodate children in wheelchairs and a specially designed pier, Mr. Page said.
Whitfield officials want a park that "truly accommodates everyone," he said.
That was the idea behind the first Miracle League field, which was built 10 years ago in Conyers, Ga., just east of Atlanta. Now the Miracle League organization has helped build more than 230 fields in 44 states as well as Canada and Puerto Rico, said Stephanie Davis, the group's national program director.
"It's a youth baseball program, but it is specifically for children with special needs," Ms. Davis said. "That means it's accessible for children with learning disabilities all the way to more profound special needs."
HOW TO HELP
For more information about the Miracle League Field, call the Whitfield County Parks Department at 706-226-8341.
The idea for that first park came from a youth baseball coach who saw a child in a wheelchair who watched countless baseball games but couldn't play on the dirt field.
Miracle League fields, Ms. Davis explains, are accessible from the parking lot to the field. They are rubberized from the outfield to home plate. The baselines and bases are painted. Children with special needs are paired with children who are typically developing to assist in the games, she said
In the coming months, Mr. Page said the parks department will form a committee to help raise money for the field.
"This is a true community project," Mr. Page said. "It's not just a Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department project."
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
This is great. My Brother in Law and Sister are big supporters of this in St. Pete. I went to the field one day with Baby Grace. It is amazing what joy it brings to kids with special needs. I wish we had one of those fields around here in Chattanooga. If I had the money I would build one here in Dade.
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