Women Who Lead cuts ribbon on Sunrise Park improvements

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Women Who Lead cut the ribbon on improvements at Sunrise Park on Thursday.

Improvements were supported by the nonprofit, the city of Hays, through grants, and donations from Hays businesses and individuals.

The nonprofit adopted the park two years ago.

Since then, it has raised funds for a disc golf course, a new regulation-size basketball court, improvements to the park’s two ballfields and new playground equipment.

The park’s disc golf course, which was designed by Ethan Tschanz of the local Flyin’ Bison Disc Golf Club, was recently named one of the Top 50 Short Disc Golf Courses in the World by UDisc.

M&D Excavating donated its services to take the dirt from existing ballfields in Hays that were being renovated and place and grade it on the Sunrise Park fields.

Midwest Energy, Heartland Community Foundation and Hays Recreation Commission sponsored the basketball court.

The Robert and Patricia Schmidt Foundation contributed a $50,000 match to improvements at the park.

The new playground equipment was installed this summer.

Sunrise Park, 1335 Lawrence Drive, was built in 1964 adjacent to Roosevelt School.

Recently, the park fell into disrepair, and Hays Parks Director Jeff Boyle said the playground equipment was obsolete and needed replacement.

“I want to tell you, we would not be here today without you, the community,” Nancy Jeter, Women Who Lead president, said, “because everyone rallied together, and there's no way Women Who Lead could do this on their own. We especially want to thank the city of Hays and the city commissioners, because they allowed us to do so much, and they were our cheerleaders every step of the way.”

Jeter gave special thanks to the parks department and its workers who spent time in the mud, rain and heat to install the new playground equipment.

“What's really unique about that is that when you go to a park with a playground anymore,” Jeter said, “it's generally one big piece. And so what we did, we put individual pieces in. So if something breaks down or something needs to be replaced, we only need to replace one piece, which will be so good for saving our costs on that.”

Jeter said they also told the city Women Who Lead wanted something no other area park had.

“So we've got some really cool pieces,” Jeter said.

She said she was particularly proud of the set of two mommy-baby swings that lets adults and small children swing together, facing each other.

“This was a group effort, and we had so many people that gave us $10. We had so many people that gave us $25, and that touches my heart because people gave what they could and they wanted to support this project, and that means the world to us,” Jeter said.

Among the $10,000 sponsors for the park were also Thirsty’s, the Beckner family, Lewis Automotive and McIntyre Plumbing.

The Women Who Lead has a final phase planned for the park, which includes renovating the Born Learning Trail, an educational walking trail that helps children learn shapes and numbers. Golden Plains Credit Union has agreed to sponsor that project.

The trail was the nonprofit’s first project after its founding.

Women Who Lead is also partnering with the Ellis County Master Gardeners, who will be doing maintenance on the park’s butterfly garden.

The nonprofit also wants to provide outdoor tabletop games for the park and is working on a feature to commemorate the park’s major sponsors.

Women Who Lead is still taking donations for these final improvements and is planning another ribbon-cutting when the final phase is complete.

Women Who Lead has more than 150 members in Ellis County. Their mission is to inspire and empower women to affect change in their community.

The group meets at 5:15 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month at The Venue.

Learn more by visiting its website or its Facebook page.

Editor's note: Cristina Janney is a member of Women Who Lead.