Ladson youth organization fighting to save Tom Conley Park

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - For more than 50 years, Tom Conley Park in Ladson has been a place for children to participate in sports like football, baseball and cheerleading.

Now the Ladson Youth Organization is raising money to keep it around for another 50 years.

After the resignation of the organizations commission in 2017, the lease with the parks owner ended. Since then, the group has started raising money through various methods.

The owner of the park agreed to sell the land to the organization for a fraction of the actual price. The reduced price is $390,000.. In a little over a year, Ladson Youth Organization has been able to raise $300,000 but they are still in need of $90,000.

The organization’s treasurer, Jennifer Powell, says they’re working hard.

“We have done gofundme’s we’ve had fundraisers, we’ve even had kids at the front gate just with donation jars," she said. "So now we’re just $90,000 short. And it seems like a lot but really were over 77 percent of the way there but we just still really need help. Just in Summerville and Ladson alone there are roughly 80,000 citizens and if every single one of them donated one dollar we would be pretty much at our goal.”

About 900 kids participate in the youth sports at Tom Conley Park every year. If the park closes kids in the area will have to travel to neighboring communities to participate in sports.

Donations can be made online or checks made payable to Ladson Youth Organization.

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