Contact: Leah Barbour
Bottom: The volunteers renovated Dean Park's concession stand and renamed it to honor Ruth Eichelburger-Bennett, who died in the EF4 tornado on April 28 as she saved a child's life.
LOUISVILLE, Miss.--In the aftermath of an EF4 tornado that devastated a Winston County community in April, volunteers have revitalized Dean Park, renovated its concession stand and created a mural in memory a local woman who died protecting a child.
Dean Park in Center Ridge reopened Friday [Sept. 5] thanks to work supported by the Appalachian Community Learning Project. ACLP is facilitated by Mississippi State University's John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development, the Appalachian Regional Commission and New York-based The Rensselaerville Institute.
The park's renovated concession stand building, now named "Miss Ruth's Babies' Concession Stand," honors the former owner of Louisville's Miss Ruth's Child Care Center. Ruth Eichelberger-Bennett died in the tornado as she saved the life of the last child left at the daycare on April 28, and the young lady attended the mural-unveiling Friday with her family, along with members of Eichelberger-Bennett's family.
"The intent of this project has been to get this community up and running, and back to normal to have a place to enjoy as a group," said Jeremy Murdock, research associate with the Stennis Institute. "This has been an exciting project. They've put in a lot of hard work, and the concession stand being a memorial as well--it's just been an honor to work with this group."
Selected participants act as community "sparkplugs," volunteers who are passionate about making a difference in the community and inspiring others to improve quality of life, Murdock said.
Before the tornado, the sparkplugs planned to upgrade the walking track and renovate the concession stand, said Bonnie Edwards, publicity committee chair for Friends of Dean Park Inc. However, after the storm, the team went to an ACLP planning meeting in Tupelo, headed by Stennis Institute leaders, to develop a different plan.
"When we were there (in Tupelo), we had to come up with the proposal and the budget and the timeline," Edwards told the more than 100 people who gathered at the park's reopening. "We tried to think of a name for our project, and it seemed that we were on the same page: We thought of Miss Ruth Eichelberger-Bennett and the ultimate sacrifice she made on the day of the storm."
The sparkplugs decided to renovate the concession stand and honor Eichelberger-Bennett's memory because her work with children was so well-respected in the community, said Elmetra Patterson, ACLP sparkplug and vice president of Friends of Dean Park.
Winston County Supervisor Gloria Turnipseed, District 4, thanked ACLP representatives for awarding the Friends of Dean Park sparkplugs the $3,000 mini-grant that put local people back to work making a positive difference in the community.
"When the tornado came, it hit very hard through the park, and we were happy to receive this grant," she said. "It's great to have so many people concerned about the community, and this grant really created hope by creating jobs. I feel like this project is a blessing to the community by putting people back to work and helping make the park neat and clean."
Friends of Dean Park sparkplugs continue participating in ACLP through December, and they have several goals now that the renovation project is complete, Edwards said. Objectives include increasing attendance, concession stand usage and the number of volunteers.
To learn more about Friends of Dean Park or support its ACLP initiative, contact Richard Moncrief, organization president, at 662-726-3323, or Patterson at 662-779-0169 or 510-672-2106.
Learn more about the Stennis Institute's role in ACLP at http://sig.msstate.edu/aclp-spotlight-2014.
MSU is online at www.msstate.edu, facebook.com/msstate, instagram.com/msstate and twitter.com/msstate.