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Secret donor puts $74,000 substance into ‘Hope’

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

A Peachtree City man who wishes to remain anonymous has donated the remaining $74,000 needed for the Field of Hope, a youth baseball field designed for children with disabilities.

The donor wishes to remain anonymous, said Nick Harris of the Field of Hope’s board of directors.

The benefactor walked into The Bank of Georgia’s branch off Commerce Drive last week and told bank official Jim Daughtry he wanted to make sure the project was completed, said Nick Harris of the Field of Hope’s board of directors. The Bank of Georgia has been accepting donations for the field for quite some time.

The donation was a total surprise and “came out of the blue”, Harris noted.

“When Jim called me and told me about that conversation, I told him it wasn’t funny to be joking about that,” Harris said. The fund-raising effort — which will have netted $720,000 of cash and in-kind donations — was starting to slow down and Harris was becoming worried they weren’t going to meet the financial goal.

There were worries, Harris said, that the fund-raising campaign would be stretched out another year. The campaign began almost four years ago.

“We were about at our wits’ end,” Harris said. “We had no feelers and we were all starting to wonder, where are we going to get this money?”

A recent mailing seeking funds from 100 persons and businesses was sent out recently, and ironically the benefactor received his mailing just before he visited Daughtry at the bank, Harris said. The donor said he had already made his mind up about his good deed before opening the mailing, Harris said.

“He said it was like a sign from God that this was the right thing to be doing,” Harris said.

Harris said he told the anonymous donor that he was a guardian angel, but the donor said he wasn’t.

“He said, ‘When you have the money, you’re able to do things like this,’” Harris recalled.

The donor also remarked that he had been tracking the Field of Hope’s progress, Harris noted.

The donation was the largest cash contribution received during the fund-raising campaign, Harris noted.

“It was just like a miracle from God,” Harris said of the donation. “... It’s put everybody at ease. We no longer have to worry about raising money.”

Similar fields have been built in other areas, but there was no use of debt financing or a tax on local citizens for Field of Hope, Harris said.

“It took us longer, but it was worth the effort,” Harris said.

The field’s unique rubberized playing surface will be installed late this month. At $131,000, the playing surface was the most expensive part of the project.

The rubberized surface is one of the key features since a normal dirt playing field can hinder some of the players who might be using a walker or a wheelchair to maneuver around. On defense, each player gets help from a “buddy” partner who can help to make plays.

Opening day for the field will likely be set for early October, which puts it after the Peachtree City Challenger League has already started its season, but it will be worth the wait, Harris said.

Part of the delay is so the adjacent field, built with normal dirt and grass, will be ready, Harris said. The idea for that field all along was creating a place for able-bodied children to play side-by-side with kids in the Challenger League, Harris said.

The Field of Hope is located at Peachtree City’s south Highway 74 baseball and soccer complex. The land for the field was donated by the Peachtree City City Council.

Numerous companies and individuals have helped by donating services and supplies in-kind, Harris noted.

“It has truly, truly been a community effort,” Harris said. “These kids are going to be playing ball ... and it’s going to do a lot for our recreational program.”

The Challenger League currently has 55 kids involved and there are plans to expand it this spring with hopes of almost doubling that amount.

“I think we can do it,” Harris said.