Opportunity Village breaks ground on park to expand programs

Sean Morrissey is a young man of few words, but his arms stretched aloft in a sign of victory said it all as dignitaries broke ground June 23 for Sean’s Park, a first-of-its-kind recreation destination for people with intellectual or physical disabilities.

Construction on the park is underway at the Opportunity Village Engelstad Campus, 6050 S. Buffalo Drive, and completion is anticipated in November.

Amenities are set to include an 18-hole putt-putt course with synthetic turf; a fabric shade system and overhead lighting; a shuffleboard; a moon walk area with a bouncy base to help develop balance; a community garden plaza with raised planter beds and composting bins; a wheelchair-accessible swing; an arts and crafts plaza with display cases for art; and a crosswalk traffic post with dual vehicular signals, a pedestrian walk signal and a push-button activation to allow visitors to practice pedestrian skills.

The park has been in the works since 2008, but at the height of the recession, finding funding took time. Now with $2 million from Clark County and another $2 million from donations and other funds, the park and programming associated with it are on the way.

“A year from now, when we’re up and running, you need to come back and see what we’ve done here,” said Sean’s father, Mike Morrissey. “I’m really excited about this; I think it’s fantastic.”

Morrissey, president of Morrissey Insurance, has been involved with Opportunity Village for nearly 30 years and serves on its board.

County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who has championed the park project from the beginning, said it will provide people with recreation opportunities others take for granted.

“This is absolutely incredible — the fact that you can put a wheelchair on these swings and get that experience, and the miniature golf course and the little garden,” he said. “It’ll just be a tremendous opportunity. The county is very, very proud to be part of the funding for this. The community came together — whether it’s the construction folks, the architects, the builders — to give them an opportunity we take for granted.”

Opportunity Village chief development officer and associate executive director Linda Smith and Cary Harned, the nonprofit’s senior grants and major gifts officer, came up with the idea for the park. Harned said they had 2½ acres of land on which they couldn’t put a building, and while some proposed a baseball diamond, she and Smith decided on a park.

Harned said it quickly evolved after it started out “being just a park with trees and benches and a place to eat your sandwich with your friends.”

“It has such potential and that’s how we started dreaming,” she said.

Harned said every station in the park will feature unique programming.

“It’s kind of covert learning about life skills,” she said.

Visitors will learn skills such as personal safety and money management, “all done in the context of having a really good time. We don’t want to turn it into, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go learn about tomatoes today.’ It’s going to be very experiential, very active.”

The park, set to feature a key card entry gate, will be closed to the general public.

“It’s for the people that Opportunity Village serves, both children and adults,” Harned said. “But it’s also for any family in the community that has a child with a disability or an adult child with a disability.”

She added that once the programs are established, the nonprofit would like to open the park to families visiting the area with a disabled family member. The hope is that the facility will help inspire similar parks in other places.

“It’s about sharing this with other communities, if only sharing the idea or the dream or the concept drawings, whatever it is that’s going to help them,” Harned said.

Smith said the park is one of several large projects Opportunity Village is developing.

“We’re in the throes of our massive capital campaign,” she said. “It’s a comprehensive campaign, an all-in campaign to raise $136 million.”

The campaign launched in May, and so far the organization has raised more than $90 million. Projects that Smith said the nonprofit hopes to complete include the addition of 100 residential units at the Engelstad Campus to house people with disabilities and “intentional neighbors” without disabilities, in a unique “live, work, play, create atmosphere.” Also planned is the creation of a new northwest campus, which would also include a residential component, and a major renovation of the main campus at 6300 W. Oakey Blvd.

“When you come to the Magical Forest, it’s not just the lights. You’re going to know that this is a place that people with intellectual disabilities work, learn and create in,” Smith said.

The Walters Family campus in Henderson, 451 E. Lake Mead Drive, is expected to double in size.

“It’s the largest comprehensive campaign for people with intellectual disabilities in the world,” Smith said. “It’s a big deal. I think it’s the second-largest campaign going on in Nevada right now.”

For more information on Sean’s Park or Opportunity Village, visit opportunityvillage.org.

Contact View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer at gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm.