Warner Robins Lions Club aims to build park for handicapped children

WARNER ROBINS — As the city prepares to spend millions upgrading its neglected parks, the Warner Robins Lions Club is creating a handicapped-friendly park on Moody Road.

The idea for the park surfaced in 2009 when Harvey Ware, the club's president, was visiting a Lions Club in Washington County.

"I happened to see some kids playing in a park, and sitting to the side was a kid in a wheelchair," Ware said. "He wanted to play so bad but there was nothing in that park for him to play with. ... I decided at that time we need a handicapped park in Warner Robins. There's nothing in central Georgia like that."

Ware said he envisioned a swing set and a merry-go-round designed for children in wheelchairs.

"It was just kind of a pipe dream at the time," Ware said. "I came back to my club the next meeting and suggested we try to build one."

The park will be built on five acres of land, and a 55,000 square-foot clubhouse will be built on an adjacent acre, Ware said.

Randall Dodd, 78-year-old treasurer of the Lions Club, was assistant city engineer for 11 years before retiring in 2006. Dodd said he's been working on the property for years and has been helped on occasion by volunteers and boys in Eagle Scout Troop 550.

"I bet we've hauled 50 or 60 trailer loads of trees and vines and stumps out of here," Dodd said. "Probably another acre and a half worth of trees have to come out. They're old scrubby trees, and they've got thorns on them that are like needles."

The rugged terrain will be graded, and tree stumps will be removed in coming months to make way for a 5,000 square-foot enclosed area, which will have a rubberized surface on which special needs children can play. The park will include swings for children with or without disabilities.

In addition, the park will include a pavilion for picnics, and "it will be open to the public," Dodd said.

Dodd had blueprints for what the park would look like, but those plans changed after he visited a "miracle park" in Covington last week. Lions Club International awarded Covington's club $75,000 to help with the construction of the park, which allows disabled children to play baseball.

"I got a hold of Lions International ... and they said if we can get $100,000 they will match it," Dodd said. "We've got probably $20,000 sitting in the bank of the $100,000 we're going to need."

Dodd said he hopes to apply for the matching grant in February and receive the money in May.

Jim Taylor is vice chairman of Wellston Trees & Greens, a nonprofit with the purpose of improving and preserving natural resources in the Warner Robins area. Taylor said a park for the handicapped is long overdue.

"We're trying to help them get some grant money," Taylor said. "That's one of the parks that we can kind of help out with. ... There's a tremendous amount of public support for it."

Ware said the Warner Robins Lions Club is getting new members who want to be part of the park's creation.

"We're 23 (members), and we're getting new members just about every meeting because of the park," Ware said. ""The little advertisement we've got, people really seem to want that park to go up. ... Next spring, we're going to go full force with the property."

Ware, a second-generation Lions Club member since 1988, said the club is creating the park "to benefit the handicapped people in our community (because) if you look around, there is a lot of handicapped people in the Houston County area."

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Warner Robins Lions Club aims to build park for handicapped children ."