United donates $75K to Alström Angels for Milestones Development & Play Park Project

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Wednesday, one Lubbock organization is one step closer to building a new park for children.

Alström Angels received a $75,000 dollar donation from United Supermarkets to go towards the development of Milestones Development & Play Park Project. It’s been a dream years in the making for Alström Angels’ Executive director and co-founder, Cassie Johnston.

“We’ve been working on this project milestones park for a little over three years and have been talking to United on and off throughout that process,” said Johnston.

Johnston said it all started after a trip to the park with her daughter.

“When my daughter was little, she has special needs and is severely vision impaired. But at that time, we didn’t really know to what extent she was vision impaired, and she has a lot of sensory issues,” said Johnston. “I would take her to the park, not knowing how little she could see. And she was struggling to get around on the equipment and it wasn’t safe for her. If the wind was blowing, then she was completely overstimulated and having a meltdown. She was crying, I was crying. And I remember the day that I got in the car, she was crying, I was upset. And I said we’re never going back to the park again.”

Johnston said that’s when the idea for the Milestones Development & Play Park Project came from.

“There should be a place for children like Bryce, a place that’s made for them. That’s a calm environment, that doesn’t have all the additional stressors that we have of just west Texas; the dirt, the wind, the cold, the heat, in a place that is made so that they can safely access all of the equipment. That was really the beginning of this idea.”

And as it evolved, it became something more.

“We did more research and looked into what does our community need and how could this project best, best help our community, we realized that it didn’t need to be a park just for special needs kids, it needed to be for all children, whether they’re on two legs or two wheels. Every child should be able to come in and play inside milestones park,” said Johnston.

The City of Lubbock donated land for the new playground. Johnston said groundbreaking and construction on the project at McAlister park could start as early as next month.

The United Family’s donation will specifically go towards a birthday party/event room in the facility. That $75,000 donation puts Alström Angels within reach of the finish line.

“We are now at 84.49 percent of our total goal raise. We only have $480,000 left, But we are at that point that we can go ahead and begin construction,” said Johnston, “We’ve got everything raised for the building itself. That remaining $480,000 is everything inside the park; the equipment, the place structures.”

You can find more information on Alström Angels, click here.

Copyright 2021 KCBD. All rights reserved.