Ali's Angels Foundation begins fundraising for park

A local nonprofit that has set out to bring the first playground of its kind to Hot Springs has started to raise funds for its project.

Ali's Angels Foundation, named for 7-year-old Ali Vise, who died of Infantile Batten Disease in 2014, has long held the goal of providing the Spa City with its first barrier-free, handicapped-accessible park. Now that it has rights to the land it plans to use, the nonprofit has begun the process of collecting money for the park, which has been dubbed Ali's Wonderland.

Ali's Wonderland, which plans to include a wheelchair swing, music items and a sensory slide, will be located at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Richard Street. The Hot Springs School Board voted Sept. 27, 2016, to donate the land to the nonprofit. More recently, the city of Hot Springs gave Ali's Angels a land deed for the property.

"It's been recorded, which is what we've been fighting for two years," said Vise's mother, Donya Catlett, president of Ali's Angels. "We couldn't fundraise until that was recorded."

Catlett gave a rough estimate of $1 million that will be needed for the park's construction. The cost includes not only for the construction of the playground, but the revitalization of the property that it will stand on.

"There's a lot more to it, and we were just able to start fundraising," she said.

Catlett said that her organization will have a more accurate cost once they sit down with an engineer. She predicts the $1 million figure to have "5 to 10 percent leeway" from the final estimate.

"Right now, it's conceptual," she said.

Ali's Angels has combined its $1 million figure with the ambitious goal of beginning the park's construction in 2018. Catlett said that Ali's Angels currently has $20,000 going toward the park, including a recent donation of around $1,500 from Central Arkansas Corvette Club of Little Rock.

Catlett said that receiving such donations "makes everything worth it."

"It makes us stronger, and it just gives us the strength we need to continue to fight on as hard as we do," she said.

While she hopes that her organization will receive more of such donations, Catlett also mentioned that Ali's Angels will be doing "little things" to raise money, as well. She said that one such way that her organization is looking to collect funds is by seeking sponsorship.

Catlett said that, along with its monetary needs, the organization also needs manpower.

"It will take everybody in the community to be involved and engaged," she said. "We need volunteers; we need more staff on board."

Having said this, Catlett encouraged the public to be involved in Ali's Wonderland.

"There's a lot of great opportunity," she said. "Just being able to be a part of this project and to give back and to know the impact that you're involved in for generations is worth every bit of it."

Call Catlett at 501-617-5617, or email her at [email protected], for information on how to contribute.

Local on 08/07/2017

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