Opportunity Village breaks ground for a unique new park in Las Vegas

A Southern Nevada park for children and adults with intellectual and learning disabilities came a step closer to reality on Tuesday.

Sean’s Park is touted as the first hands-on learning and recreational project of its kind. Opportunity Village, a nonprofit organization, began fund-raising for the project in 2008 and collected just shy of $4 million. Some of that money will be used to launch programming needed for the park once it’s completed.

The project is “tremendous,” said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. Often, he said, there’s an idea for a project, but the idea fails to make it all the way through.

“They don’t all come to reality, they don’t come to fruition, but this one did,” Sisolak said on Tuesday morning.

A few dozen people gathered Tuesday morning at Opportunity Village campus, 6050 S. Buffalo Dr., for a groundbreaking ceremony. The 2.5-acre park is expected to be completed in November.

It’s estimated that seven- to eight-million Americans of all ages, or three percent of the general population, experience intellectual disabilities, according to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. The committee was established in 1966 by then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The park, named after Sean Morrissey, 29, an artist with intellectual disabilities at Opportunity Village’s fine arts studio, will offer activities that will teach skills related to personal safety, money management, teamwork and nutrition, among others.

For example, it will have a swing for wheelchair users. There will also be a moonwalk that will help the disabled to master balance and stay active.

It will also accommodate blind children who will be able to feel their way around.

“There’s a demand for it now,” said Mike Morrissey, Sean’s father, who has been involved with the nonprofit for about 30 years. “We are setting a standard for other parts in America.”

The nonprofit also plans a residential unit on campus in coming years.

The project has been a “dream” that was inspired by Cary Harned, senior grants and major gifts officer with Opportunity Village and Linda Smith, chief development officer and foundation associate executive director at Opportunity Village, said Patty Morrissey, Sean’s mother.

“The results will be very rewarding,” she said Tuesday.

It took a little longer to get to this point because the fund-raising efforts began when the recession hit. Clark County provided a $2 million grant and the Morrissey family gave a major donation.

A lot of people were involved to get the project going, Mike Morrissey said.

Including the “people who work hard every day to take care of our kids here,” he said.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro