{"id":27760,"date":"2019-09-10T05:30:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T10:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27760"},"modified":"2019-09-10T01:06:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T06:06:37","slug":"montgomery-countys-civitan-park-25-acre-expansion-open-for-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/09\/10\/montgomery-countys-civitan-park-25-acre-expansion-open-for-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Montgomery County\u2019s Civitan Park 25 Acre Expansion Open for Use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-49013\" title=\"Montgomery County Government Tennessee\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/montgomery-county-logo1-200x136.jpg\" alt=\"Montgomery County Government Tennessee\" width=\"200\" height=\"136\"\/><strong>Montgomery County, TN<\/strong> &#8211; On Friday evening, September 6th, 2019, approximately 200 people gathered to celebrate the much-anticipated opening of the 25-acre expansion, including Rotary\u2019s Field of Dreams, at Montgomery County\u2019s Civitan Park.<\/p>\n<p>The idea for the park expansion began nine years ago with a vision to have a space that kids with special needs could call their own. That vision is now a wonderful reality for children, young adults and parents alike.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_463722\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Commissioners-at-Field-of-Dreams.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-463722\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-463722\" title=\"Montgomery County Commissioners at Field of Dreams.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Commissioners-at-Field-of-Dreams-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Montgomery County Commissioners at Field of Dreams.\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-463722\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Montgomery County Commissioners at Field of Dreams.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Director of Montgomery County Parks and Recreation Jerry Allbert kicked off the event by thanking the County Mayor, County Commissioners, Clarksville Rotary Clubs, Clarksville Montgomery County Community Health Foundation, Blue Cross\/ Blue Shield, County Engineering Department, County Parks and Recreation staff, County Facilities Department, Lyle, Cook Martin Architects, DBS and Associates Engineering, Dale Hoff and Thomas Design, and Southland Construction for their work on the project.<\/p>\n<p>Speakers at the event included Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett, Director of Parks and Recreation Jerry Allbert, Rotary International Governor Robert Huffman and Buddy Ball Director Mary Margaret Davis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_463723\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rotary-Clubs-Field-of-Dreams.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-463723\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-463723\" title=\"Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rotary-Clubs-Field-of-Dreams-480x313.jpg\" alt=\"Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams\" width=\"480\" height=\"313\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-463723\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt makes my heart full to be here today. This is something we\u2019ve needed for a long time in our community,\u201d said Mayor Durrett. \u201cWithout the incredible support from our local Rotary Clubs and the Community Health Foundation I don\u2019t know that we would be cutting a ribbon this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[320left]Robert Huffman added, \u201cWe brought our people of action slogan to life with the Field of Dreams project by identifying the needs, working with County Government leadership, CMCSS Director of Special Populations, our friends at Buddy Ball, and the Clarksville Association of Down Syndrome to add to our depth of understanding. Once we understood the need we took action with partners such as the Community Health Foundation and Blue Cross\/Blue Shield to make a plan and secure funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a 20-year dream come true. It\u2019s about our athletes who play Buddy Ball. We no longer need to worry about where we are going to play because this is our field for our Buddy Ball games. I also want to remind you of the ADA playground behind us. Parents can now assist and play with their kids on the playground. What a wonderful gift our community has received,\u201d said Margaret Davis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_463724\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rotary-Clubs-Field-of-Dreams-2.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-463724\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-463724\" title=\"Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rotary-Clubs-Field-of-Dreams-2-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-463724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotary Clubs Field of Dreams<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The speeches were followed by ribbon cuttings for the Buddy Ball field and the ADA playground. Members from the Buddy Ball teams wasted no time getting on the field for their first pitch and play at their new home.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_463725\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Buddy-Ball.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-463725\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-463725\" title=\"Buddy Ball\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Buddy-Ball-480x276.jpg\" alt=\"Buddy Ball\" width=\"480\" height=\"276\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-463725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Buddy Ball<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The 25-acre expansion features an ADA compliant playground for special needs children, 1.011 miles of walking\/running trails, three new baseball\/softball ball fields, one of those baseball fields (Rotary Field of Dreams) designated specifically for Buddy Ball, one multi-purpose field and a concession stand.<\/p>\n<p>If you have questions about the park, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mcgtn.org\/parks\" >www.mcgtn.org\/parks<\/a> or call the Montgomery County Parks and Recreation Department at <a href=\"mailto:askester@mcgtn.net\">askester@mcgtn.net<\/a> or call 931.648.5732.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Montgomery County, TN &#8211; On Friday evening, September 6th, 2019, approximately 200 people gathered to celebrate the much-anticipated opening of the 25-acre expansion, including Rotary\u2019s Field of Dreams, at Montgomery County\u2019s Civitan Park. The idea for the park expansion began nine years ago with a vision to have a space that kids with special needs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[13771,34028,7943,20820,4253,1373,34027,160,30949,34026,10067,5996,9828],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7dK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27761,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27760\/revisions\/27761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}