Guys Who Give donate $5,950 to Friends of Rea Park

Tribune-Star - The funds, presented Thursday at the Wabash Valley Community Foundation’s Terre Haute office, are to develop the golf course’s historic clubhouse and grounds into a comprehensive, life-long sports health plex that can help in regaining physical, mental and economic wellness, said Michael L. Harding, president of Friends of Rea Park.

“Friends of Rea Park was founded at first to rehabilitate the historic 1925 clubhouse. It is like a French Lick but on a mini scale,” Harding said. “It grew more into a health plex on the south side. There are about 45 acres on the west side of South Seventh Street” that can be developed into a health/lifelong sports complex, Harding said.

In addition to rehabilitation of the golf club house, there are goals to create new tennis and pickle-ball courts, a golf academy and build a “family park within a park” that would include playground equipment, a splash pad and other amenities.

“This donation from 100 Guys Who Give will go toward the restoration of the clubhouse combined with public money from the state and money the city has,” Harding said.

Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said the “bottom line is we want to save that [clubhouse] building. It is on the [National Registry of Historic Places]…and is one that Friends of Rea Park made it a mission to save,” the mayor said.

The mayor said an architectural design is near complete and the project could be let for rehabilitation construction bids in late spring or early summer “depending on the funding.”

The private donations from Friends of Rea Park will allow the city to use other funds to further develop the park with a running/walking path around the park and other features.

The city will seek additional funding for that park in a second Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant cycle, the mayor said. “The goal is to get this all done in three years,” Bennett said.

Harding said the Friends of Rea Park could move into a public fundraising campaign in the near future.

Earl Elliott, Terre Haute city councilman, a member of Guys Who Give, and Friends of Rea Park treasurer, reported in August the group had raised $589,000 including a $50,000 READI grant. The goal is to reach $2.12 million.