Sandra believed that volunteerism would provide not only the means to restore the park, but also a powerful symbolic component in defining the park’s new role.
With the social, economic, and racial divisions within our communities becoming more pronounced in recent years, Sandra believed that the restoration and use of the park by a diverse cross section of the city’s citizens would help break down barriers that kept the communities apart. Working in an outdoor setting –– a park–– would remove people from urban society and its social norms, which often includes fear of the “Other,” class prejudices, and bigotries. A project in a more natural setting would enable people to come together out of sense of natural fraternity and common cause, the foundations of true citizenship. Her vision inspired the community, drawing 800 volunteers and building this base up to over 3,000 volunteers from all segments of Warrensburg for a common cause and ideal.
Sandra set the example by doing. She personally worked as a volunteer for over six years, full time, to keep the momentum going. To raise the initial $120,000 dollars in costs, Sandra set staged festivals, held fundraisers, lobbied Missouri legislators, worked with the Missouri Division of Tourism, and spoke before every civic organization she could find. She reached out to schools and university groups, the Boy and Girl Scout organizations, church groups, and gardening clubs. She even created a display in the county Historical Society and worked to get the park’s history recorded in national, state and local publications. Under Sandra’s leadership, what had declined into a trash-filled, weed-strangled space has bloomed into a park, complete with gardens, lawns, sensory walkways for the visually impaired, a large gazebo for musical performances, and more. Reigning over the restored urban oasis of Blind Boone Park now stands a larger-than-life sculpture of the eponymous Mr. Boon.
Sandra’s effort began because she and her husband shared an intimate knowledge about and experienced the history of the old “Negroes Only” Park. As farmers themselves, Sandra and her husband saw a space that required tending, nurturing, and reviving. But they also envision a harvest richer than the park’s original purpose could have achieved. Sandra Irle has united a community of students and educators, citizens and visitors, affluent and poor, Black and White to achieve a common ownership in their community’s history, and at the same time expand and deepen the bonds of that community to one of family. Blind Boone Park has become not only a shining example of what a grass-roots organization with a leader like Sandra can do, but also an example of what our society can achieve in reviving our civic spaces–––and, in the process, our fraternal bonds of community and nation.
To learn more about Sandra and her cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit:
www.blindboonepark.org .
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