Photos courtesy of City of Perry’s Marketing & Engagement Coordinator Chris Cohea

The Perry Parks and Recreation Department held a ceremonial event for an exciting new structure at Pattee Park on Saturday.

Assistant Recreation Director Becky Halling shares that following the tragic shooting that occurred at Perry High School in January of 2024, Karen Ventura with Musco Lighting reached out to see if she could design a project in the community to bring some positivity to the residents. 

Halling says Ventura offered to give the Perry School District a mini-pitch court, but they kindly declined as they recently installed a mini-pitch court themselves, so Ventura turned her attention to the Parks and Rec Department, who accepted the kind gesture. Halling expresses that she is super appreciative of all the support from all the contributing organizations.

“We were very blessed and very lucky with the community that we’re in. We had some big donors and some big sponsors step up and (were) willing to help. We had Harlan Concrete and then Hughes Excavation for coming in and helping us get started with the grade level work to put on to pour the concrete, and then Kirk Electric came in and was a big help for us.”

Halling explains that during the planning phase, the Parks and Rec Department wanted to make the structure as big as possible, so they decided to go with a double pitch, which allows for both basketball and soccer. She outlines that between the planning phase and construction, the whole project took about 18 months to complete. Halling concludes that the mini-pitch is open to the public for free.