Nonprofit Scores $25,000 Grant To Build New Children's Park

Children’s Park of Georgia, a park planned for Canton and Cherokee County, has received a matching gift grant of $25,000.

The park is currently raising money to purchase 4.5 acres in Canton near the corner of Highway 20 and Butterworth Road across from the entrance to River Green subdivision.

This accessible and desired location will bring families to the park from Canton, Cherokee County and surrounding areas. The closing date for this land is mid-February and so far, organizers have raised nearly $60,000.

The purchase price for the property is $90,000.

The matching grant made by an anonymous donor “promises that each donation made from now until the end of January will be doubled up to $25,000,” organizers said in their press release.

Once the matching gift is met, the land will be paid for. After the land is acquired, construction will begin and the park is expected to open in 2016.

The Children’s Park of Georgia, which is under the umbrella of the Remember Georgia’s Children Foundation, was founded by Christy Cox Zeigler in 2005 in memory of her daughter, Alexis Cox Zeigler, who passed away 17 hours after birth.

During her grieving, Zeigler said it occurred to her that she “had a great longing to visit a park to help her cope with her unfathomable loss.”

Not an empty green space or flower garden, but what she coined a beautiful place with meaning; a place where she “could reflect, pray, feel understood and be at peace with the circumstances that weren’t going to change,” she added.

Based on a similar park now built in Tyler, Texas, Zeigler began the search for the perfect place to build the park.

The park has unique opportunities for donors. With the Founding Mothers and Fathers Campaign, any gift of $100 or more will receive recognition by placing the name on the Founding Mothers and Fathers plaque in the future Children’s Park of Georgia and on their web site.

Donations can be made directly at www.give.childrensparkofgeorgia.com.

The Children’s Park of Georgia will be a special place to celebrate the lives of all children. It will provide opportunities for natural play and quiet meditation along with opportunities to engrave children’s names along the sidewalks and monuments. It will also serve as a place where children will love to visit, play, explore and discover.

For more information, visit Children’s Park of Georgia’s website.

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