Man launches campaign to re-open local park
By Trevor Sochocki and Anna Muckenfuss
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FLINT TOWNSHIP, Michigan (WNEM) — For more than a decade, investors have seen Pirate’s Park as a skull and crossbones. But one local man sees a pile of treasure.
“No one else is gonna do this, is what I keep finding out. Like it’s too much work. It’s too much risk. It’s really not,” said Danen Williams. “We’ve got a full-size sports field, there’s a sledding hill, there’s walking trails, there’s the pond, there’s just a ridiculous amount of opportunity that they never really took full advantage of.”
The Grand Blanc resident went to Pirate’s Park as a kid growing up in Davison. When he heard people tried and failed to restore the park in 2019, he decided to take it on himself.
“Because I am a very big nerd. I love games, I love playing stuff. I’m super competitive—I don’t mind losing though. Like, I will play to the end, but I suck at a bunch of stuff. But it’s, it’s always just fun that way,” Williams said.
His plan for the park is to open big attractions first, like mini-golf, batting cages, and a zipline, then other games later.
While many look at the rundown buildings and see a junk yard, Williams sees a park for kids of all ages and those who are kids at heart.”
“it’s beautiful. It is so much potential. I’m a lover of broken things. I love nostalgia, I love building things though, to take and polish this gem that, you can’t find the things that they have over there,” Williams said.
But big dreams need big money.
Williams said he has financing and investors ready to go renovate and get the park ready, but first he needs to put a down payment to buy the property; around $150,000.
“If every person watching this gave $20 or less, we’d be, we’d be funded, we’d have a place to go. We’d have a park,” Williams said.
Williams has a Kickstarter campaign that ends April 19th.
It’s an all-or-nothing campaign, and the money you donate goes to credit in the park if and when it opens.
“We can have a place to hang out. To where everyone is welcome, and having fun, and it’s not a scam. It’s a real thing that I just really care about,” Williams said.
If you’d like to donate to the Kickstarter campaign or learn more about the park, you find links to both in the hotlinks section.
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