CULLMAN – As the first day of the annual country music festival came to an end, Rock the South presented both the City of Cullman Parks and Recreation Department and Childhaven Child Home with checks of over $50,000 and $10,000, respectively.
“Well you always want people to know why you do an event like this every single year,” Shane Quick, co-owner of Premier Productions (the company responsible for organizing Rock the South) said in front of the estimated 20,000-plus crowd on Friday night. “In 2011 we had the largest outbreak of tornadoes in the history of our state (which also) went through Cullman. . . We came together like no other time before to help each other…We wanted to have a festival that celebrated the very fact that we come together in time of need and help one another.
“So, every year at Rock the South,” Quick continued, “we want to raise money and do things to help people that do that every single day. Rock the South wants to present this check for $51,200 to the Cullman Park and Rec.”
The donation will go towards the building of Cullman’s latest major parks project, the Connected Park project. This new park will allow kids of all ages and all abilities to feel like the park is “their park,” and will be located at the current location of the old Ingle Park.
“The great thing about this park, the thing that makes it unique, is that a kid with full abilities, who can run, jump and play without any limitation, they’re going to look at this park and say, ‘that’s my park,’” said Nathan Anderson, executive director of the City Parks and Recreation Department. “But then you could have a kid roll up in a wheelchair, or have some other physical limitation, and they’re going to approach the park and say, ‘that’s my park.’ So this truly is an inclusive environment. We chose the name ‘Connected Park’ because we’re connecting people of all backgrounds and abilities.”
According to Anderson the park will not only be a benefit to Cullman, but will bring crowds from all across the surrounding north Alabama region.
“We’ve talked to people who have built similar parks, and they said ‘prepare for the buses,’ because people will be coming by the bus-load to this park,” he said.
Anderson said that since three weeks ago when official fundraising began for the project, over $80,000 has been raised.
“$350,000 will build the playground, and we’ll need about another $150,000 to complete the splash-pad. Right now we’ve already built the pavilion, the city is helping us to lay the concrete. This is the last piece to this park,” he said.
Between the two charity donations, Cullman Mayor Max Townson presented Quick with a key to the City of Cullman and made Quick an Honorary Cullman Colonel.
“That really means everything, you know?” Quick said. “Doing events is our lives, it’s what we love, but to do it right in Cullman, our hometown, it’s very special. We know the event makes a huge impact on a lot of people’s lives, from recreation to helping them do what they’re called to do, it just means everything.”
Full photo gallery: http://qrne.ws/rts2016
