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ShareConcerts Raise Funds for Fully Accessible Playground
Heart. Music. Change. Performs Pair of Sunday Shows
11/23/09
Tricia Heys (right) and Katie Schaad sing a duet on the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" at the Heart. Music. Change. benefit concert. (BELOW) A mix of college and high school students and other community members sing out.
The Wilmington community’s musical talent converged with its hallmark for helping others Sunday (Nov. 22) as a pair of concerts at Wilmington College raised $3,000 toward a fully accessible playground.
The College/community group known as Heart. Music. Change. performed an afternoon and evening show in support of Little Hearts, Big Smiles of Southwestern Ohio, a recently formed organization that provides a supportive outlet for parents of children with special needs.
Heart. Music. Change. is comprised of WC students and alumni, along with other members of the local community. It is under the musical direction of Steven F. Haines and Catherine Roma, professor of music at WC.
Barry Wulf, president of Little Hearts, Big Smiles, said the group hopes to raise $500,000 for a fully handicapped accessible playground with restrooms and a pavilion in Wilmington. The Wilmington Park Board has earmarked 2.5 acres of land at the Stuckey Farm Park location Routes 22/3 for the playground.
He said the playground plans feature an “earth-friendly design” with ramps and a surface for ease of wheelchair accessibility.
“I’m eternally grateful for your efforts,” he told the singers and their audience, noting that, in just over a year, more than $140,000 has been raised. “We’re well on the way — it’s going to happen.”
Tara Lydy, a Heart. Music. Change. Board member and director of the Center for Service and Civic Engagement at the College, also spoke of all children deserving a recreational facility where they can play.
“As a community, we can rise up and build a playground,”
she said.
