When I posted a few days ago about the community plaza I thought there was a chance that it could work. Sitting here now, I fully believe that this will be our reality and I won’t stop until we get there. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for all the support and kind words from everyone. I’m not saying it will be easy and I can guarantee we will face opposition but we can’t let that discourage us. Now’s the time to pace ourselves and start putting one foot in front of the other because it’s going to be a long uphill hike. I’m thinking it’ll be pretty amazing though.

The first thing I’m going to do is to create a website that will serve as a community forum for the topic. It will be a place for us to raise awareness, share ideas and for people to voice concerns. There will be a fund created that will go towards construction of the park. The money in this fund will not be touched until it is used for that purpose only. I will personally be donating $5,000.00 on day one. The dollar amount in the fund will be visible on the home page of the website. Also, the business that I will be announcing and launching in the coming weeks will be donating a percentage of net profits to this fund. Eventually we will need to discuss our intentions with the City. The forum will show them that we are serious about this and mean business.

The plaza will be dedicated in memory of Blake Doyle. Blake passed recently in a tragic accident but not before touching the lives of a very large group of people who loved him more than most could imagine. Blake’s twin brother Bart said that Blake would love what we are doing. Bart will be heavily involved in the process and says he will do anything he can to help. Blake is survived by his beautiful wife Amanda Doyle and his baby girl “Blake Austin” that she is carrying and is due July 1st.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get involved. For now, sharing this post via social media and following and subscribing to the blog will go a LONG way in helping to raise awareness.

My immediate next step is to find a talented web designer to work with and get this thing rolling. If you know of anyone who may be good for the job please let me know! Email is probably the best way to reach me. My email address is jonshell88@gmail.com. Let’s do this!

Photos by by Ian Reid