HOW TO DONATE/VOLUNTEER
Donations to Elley’s Hope Playground Park can be made on the church’s web site www.placeofblessing.com or mailed to Berachah Church, P.O. Box 156, Middletown, Ohio, 45042. Those interested in volunteeering can call the church at 513-422-1672.
As part of its “Hands & Feet” Mission, Berachah Church volunteers and community members have remodeled more than 60 dilapidated Middletown homes over the past seven years.
Each of those projects benefited one family, said Clark Helvey, the church’s pastor of outreach and missions. Berachah’s next project, Elley’s Hope Playground Park, will have the ability to reach thousands of families throughout the region, Helvey said.
Ground will be broken on the playground, located in Lefferson Park, at 1 p.m. May 3; excavation will start May 4; construction will begin May 14; and the project is expected to be dedicated on Sept. 20, Helvey said. Volunteers will work on the playground throughout the summer, he said.
The project will include two playground areas: one traditional and one American Disabilities Association approved with specifically designed equipment for children with disabilities. The playground is named in honor of Elley Ferrell, 12, a sixth-grader at Highview Center who was born with spina bifida. She is the daughter of Pastor Lamar Ferrell, of Berachah, and his wife, Maryanne.
Elley and local dignitaries are expected to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony, which will include the release of special Elley’s Hope balloons, Helvey said.
The 15,000-square-foot park will feature numerous pieces of playground equipment, a shelter with picnic tables, benches, flag poles and possibly a parking lot. The project is estimated to cost $170,000, and if a parking lot is built, the cost will jump by $30,000 to $50,000, he said.
So far, Helvey said, Berachah has secured about $57,000 in funding. The church cleared $22,000 from its Master’s Mission golf tournament last fall and received donations of $25,000 from the Middletown Community Foundation; $5,000 from SunCoke; and $2,000 from Atrium Medical Center. Helvey said he has sent donation requests to major corporations throughout the city.
The church also has received donations from area residents, who purchased $50 pavers.
The playground will be the largest project in the church’s history, Helvey said. He said the playground will be able to serve the more than 10,000 people with disabilities who live in Butler and Warren counties. He said many of them probably never have enjoyed an afternoon with their families on a playground.
“We will be able to bless literally thousands of people,” he said. “This will give people who have limitations the opportunity to have some enjoyment that the rest of us are accustomed to. We take our health for granted.”
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