TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– As Ann Welch watched kids playing on the latest addition to Collett Park, she couldn’t help but start to feel the emotions.
“The first day that we had the court really finished, the goals weren’t even up, and we had kids out here playing already. I was just very emotional about it,” she said.
Welch, who is the president of the Collett Park Neighborhood Association, had time to reflect on Saturday as the organization hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new futsal court. Futsal is soccer but on a hard surface.
“This is the only one in Terre Haute, we have been fortunate to have several granters to help us fund this court, we had to take an old abandon tennis court and resurface it, and now we’ve got a futsal court,” Welch said.
Welch said they had been working on this project for several years, and received grants from the Oakley Foundation, the Wabash Valley Community Foundation and United Way. She said the Latinas Welding Guild provided the goals.
She also believes the timing couldn’t be better, with the FIFA Men’s World Cup slated to kick off later this year.
“Every time there’s some big event and the World Cup shows up, everyone’s interested in Soccer. We’re really lucky this is the year we got it finished because we’ve been working on this for three or four years,” Welch said.
As the ribbon cutting took place, Welch quoted a line from the movie “Field of Dreams” as kids played on the new facility.
“If you build it, they will come.”
