“We will be breaking barriers, not just ground” stated Kim Chapman, co-anchor of NewsChannel 9 and co-founder of the Miracle League of Chattanooga. Ms. Chapman emceed the ground breaking ceremony for the Miracle League Field and Miracle League Playground at Warner Park on Wednesday. Many donors and supporters were on hand to speak about the importance of providing a baseball field and playground that allows children with special needs to play alongside typically developing children and what this recreation space will mean to the kids, families, and community for generations to come.
The new Miracle League playground structure, designed by Play & Park Structures, is an all-inclusive play environment that features a variety of interactive and social play components, multiple slides at various heights, adaptive swing seats, and lots of shade. To complement the adjacent ball field, the playground will also feature mobility-device friendly unitary rubber surfacing, complete with baseball theming.
Miracle League started in Atlanta, Georgia more than two decades ago. Today, there are presently over 240 Miracle League organizations that serve 200,000 plus children and adults. The Miracle League fields are made with a special rubberized surface that allows athletes using wheelchairs, walkers, or crutches to easily get from base to base.
The Miracle League believes that every child deserves a chance to play, and thanks to this new facility, children with special needs will now see that dream become a reality. The construction of the Miracle Field and Miracle League Playground is set to begin next week and be completed just in time to play ball in the early Fall of 2016.
Watch the video of the actual ground-breaking HERE.