Local park for kids with special needs and disabilities one step closer to opening day

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — The Miracle League of West Mobile: Schmidt Family Park is one step closer to opening.

In 2020, the idea for the park originated with the Schmidt-Barton family. The park will be a place for kids with special needs and disabilities to feel the adrenaline of crossing home plate or the rush of wind going down a slide.

The park will be located off West Johnson Road near the Mobile Regional Airport. For the past few years, since the park broke ground in 2020, the site on Johnson Road has looked a lot like mounds of dirt and machinery. However, behind the construction, a miracle has been forming.

“It’s wonderful. This was a dream and now it’s coming true,” said Donnie Brown, member of the Schmidt family. “They’ve leveled it out on the surfaces. They’ve got the pipes for the concession stand, plumbing, some electricity, and a lot of infrastructure that you can’t see yet.”

The Mobile County Public School System will manage the park, but it’s been a team effort.

“The Schmidt family came to us, and they had formed this great partnership with the Mobile County Commission, South Alabama Utilities, and with Alabama Pecan, and they needed some help with it. So the Mobile County Public School System- we stepped up, we helped with some of the construction work. We’ve helped get the land ready for the construction to begin as it is now. We’re helping with some of the marketing and fundraising and applying for grants. It’s been a great collaboration in the community,” said Rena Philips, spokesperson with MCPSS.

The roughly $5 million project has been completed in phases. The park has endured the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, and economic inflation.

“It’s been a long road but we see the end coming,” added Brown.

Generous donors have played a critical role in the construction of the park. Last week, the park received an approximately $12,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council.

You could say the bases are almost loaded for opening day, but there’s still some work to do.

“This is a community partnership and we’re still raising money and so if you want to learn more about it, you can go to MCPSS.com/miracleleague and we would love to have your help in building a miracle in West Mobile,” explained Philips.

The Mobile County Public School System says they hope to have construction finished on the park by Fall of 2024.

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