Crowdfunding campaign to redevelop park begins
Starting Sept. 15 the Pontiac Community Foundation is raising money to redevelop Mattie McKinney Hatchett Park, formerly known as Neighborhood Park.
Proposed additions include new youth basketball and soccer areas, an outdoor gym, signage, walkways, bike parking, and a play structure.
Summer Brock, vice president of development for the foundation, said renovating the park, located on the city’s east side near Wall and Cottage streets, began with a desire to honor Mattie McKinney Hatchett by improving neighborhoods.
Hatchett has been a leader in the community for decades as a community activist and as an elected official who served on the county board of commissioners. She was the first Black woman to serve as president of the Michigan Association of Counties, was a Pontiac school board trustee, and served as Pontiac’s deputy mayor.
The project was supposed to happen years ago, Brock said, before the foundation existed.
“Our whole goal is to help improve this park not just for the residents in that immediate community, but so it can be a model for redevelopment for the city and spur other redevelopment in the area,” she said.
Brock said that a lot of development has occurred in downtown areas, but that the Pontiac Community Foundation aspires to complete projects that “get right to the heart of the people.”
She mentioned neighborhoods and parks in Pontiac have been neglected.
The foundation is working with Pontiac-based Zaremba & Co. on landscaping designs. The project will cost approximately $400,000, with Brock saying financial commitments mostly through grants have been made for about half that total.
A crowdfunding campaign has been started to solicit donations online, while an ambassador program encourages residents to organize neighborhood or workplace-based financial campaigns — or to post about the park project on social media.
If the crowdfunding campaign raises $50,000, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will match that total and increase funds to $100,000. It would go towards the $400,000 goal.
Brock joined the foundation in early May and has experience fundraising in southeast Michigan for about 20 years. She said the foundation is looking for more partners to join their efforts.
“We certainly wish the city was more involved,” Brock said. “Collaboration is key to improving our work and quality of life for Pontiac residents.”
A groundbreaking is planned to take place Sept. 30.