Note: This story was updated on June 24 to correct the ticket price.
A unique park designed in consideration of children with special needs and abilities is moving closer to completion with a site selection in Ringgold and a country music fundraiser this weekend.
Crossroads Unity Family Park will be at 150 Tennessee St. in Ringgold, and it is expected to be completed in 2025, said Millie Cheek, chair of the park’s committee.
The park is being developed by a group of volunteers in a partnership with the city of Ringgold, she said. The city is donating land and providing infrastructure, while volunteers are raising money to construct the park. Those efforts include a country concert scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Northwest Georgia Amphitheatre at 220 Catoosa Circle.
Tickets are $23 and available at the door and on the organization’s website, crossroadsunity.org.
“It’s gonna be great. The first two shows are going to be bluegrass, and the third is gonna be country music of the ’90s,” Cheek said.
The country act will be Neon Moon.
“They’re just a fabulous local band that everyone loves,” Cheek said.
Also playing is traditional bluegrass band Low Down Revival and Iron Horse, a band that plays singalong hits from a diverse list of artists from Metallica to Elton John — but in a bluegrass style, she said.
The headliner is Ben Chapman, Cheek said, a country singer who grew up in LaFayette but has since moved to Nashville. Chapman is well-loved by Northwest Georgia country fans, Cheek said, and has been touring with Lainey Wilson, another Nashville-base country singer.
(READ MORE: New park for people with disabilities planned for Ringgold, Georgia)
Contributed Photo / Photographed in 2022, Gracie Long holds a portrait of her grandfather, Troy Dyer Sr., a Vietnam veteran whose memory will be honored at a park for people with disabilities planned for Ringgold.The park will be dedicated to the memory of Troy Dyer Sr., a Ringgold native who lost both his legs while serving in Vietnam. He returned home to have a career as a mason, and his daughter, Misty Long, said his brick and block work around the community reminds her of her father.
In a phone call, Long said the park is a great tribute to her father and helpful resource to the disabled community of Northwest Georgia. Long said her father passed away in 2002.
“I think if he was alive, he would be ecstatic to be able to take his granddaughter to the park and be able to play with her like all other grandparents play with their kids,” Long said, referring to her 11-year-old-daughter, Gracie Long. “When we were growing up, we didn’t have that luxury.”
Most parks now and when she was growing up, Misty Long said, had steps and other obstacles that kept someone who used wheelchair, like Dyer, from accessing the swings, slides and other equipment.
Long said she liked that the park’s organizers were selling bricks — one of the tools of Dyer’s trade — to help raise money for the project. The park will be close to Ringgold United Methodist Church. Dyer built the church’s bell tower, Long said.
“My dad also was a music writer, and he sung in a country band,” Long said. ” Them doing the concert with music that he liked, that he enjoyed and he would sing, that’s special, too, so it’s all kinda connected.”
Tickets are still available, including a few VIP tickets, Cheek said. Organizers are still looking for corporate sponsors and volunteers, and concertgoers should bring a folding chair. No coolers or blankets are allowed, but food trucks will be on site.
(READ MORE: Ringgold, Georgia celebrates Dolly Days on Saturday, May 13, 2023)
Organizers like the location of the new park because they can share some of the infrastructure, including an entrance, with the Little General Park, Cheek said. Ringgold city officials are expanding beautification and infrastructure projects like sidewalks to include more of the downtown area, including where the parks are located, she said.
“Having these two parks together is a huge bonus for families, and that’s our main goal,” Cheek said.
In a previous interview, Cheek said the park will have ramps so family members in wheelchairs can be on the same level as children when they play. The centerpiece of the park is a tree house-like structure with interactive exhibits designed for visitors with autism.
QR codes will be posted throughout the park and will pull up a website teaching local history when they are scanned by a smartphone, Cheek said.
At the concert, $1 raffle tickets will give concertgoers the chance to win a signed guitar, signed mandolin and one of 20 gifts donated by local merchants. Organizers are also selling memorial bricks that will be installed at the park.
Cheek said organizers have a ways to go before they reach their fundraising goal of $750,000, but wouldn’t give specifics when asked.
Donations to the park are already tax-deductible because the fundraising project is managed through the city of Ringgold, she said, but a nonprofit organization named Friends of Crossroads will be established soon.
“Once the park is complete, we want the 501(c)(3) Friends of Crossroads to continue and look for other projects through the city and county that would help someone with disabilities,” she said, like building ramps and other amenities.
“Friends of Crossroads is going to be around for a long time,” Cheek said.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.