MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

When Brenda Wheat looks across North Dearborn Road from her home, she sees more than a playground, walking path and open green space. She sees families walking after work, kids climbing and riding bikes, parents talking while their children play, and neighbors gathering for farmers markets, Easter egg hunts, and summer evenings at Party in the Park.

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“It makes my heart happy,” Brenda said. “There’s nothing negative about a park.”

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North Dearborn Community Park calls itself “a place built by the community, for the community” — and its story reflects that mission. The park did not begin with a large budget, parks department or paid staff. It began with an empty school property, a need for safe outdoor space and one woman running laps around an old parking lot.

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Brenda lives near the former North Dearborn Elementary School property. After the school closed, the building sat empty while the district considered what would come next. Around that time, Brenda was training for a marathon. With five children and a full family schedule, she often split her miles between early mornings and evenings — and without sidewalks nearby, the old school property was the safest place to run.

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As she logged miles around the parking lot, Brenda noticed others using the space too. One family would bring their son’s bike in a minivan so he could ride safely on the old school property. That moment stayed with her. The land wasn’t just empty — it represented something North Dearborn was missing.

Brenda began asking questions, making phone calls and gathering support for turning the property into a community park. In 2019, she approached the school board about using the land. COVID slowed the process, but she kept working behind the scenes, forming a nonprofit and continuing to push the idea forward. Eventually, the school building was demolished, and North Dearborn Community Park began taking shape through volunteer leadership, grants, donations and community support.

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From the beginning, the park has been built without tax dollars. Every improvement has been funded through grants, private donations, corporate sponsors and fundraising events. There are no paid employees. A volunteer board governs the park while volunteers maintain it, plan events, write grants and handle the many small needs that come with running a public space.

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The first major project was a one-mile walking path — exactly one mile, ten feet wide, looping around the property and connecting to existing sidewalks where possible. What started as one runner circling an old parking lot became a safe place for an entire community to move.

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“As soon as the path was in, it was being used,” Brenda said. “It was almost like people didn’t know they were craving it.”

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After the path came the playground, which opened this spring. Together, they support the park’s mission: to provide a safe place for the community to move, play and thrive.

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During our interview, that connection showed up in real time. As Brenda walked the park, a man stopped to show her a photo of his grandson, born that very morning. In a rural community where neighbors can live miles apart and rarely cross paths, the park has changed that. People don’t just use it — they now know one another here.

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Brenda is the first to deflect credit. Without hesitation, she turns the conversation to the people beside her — Vice President Danielle Bischoff, Secretary Tammy Henson and board member Julie Haydu — who together handle planning, fundraising, events, grant writing and the countless decisions that come with operating a park.

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“We are a team,” Brenda said. “I cannot do this by myself.”

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The broader community has stepped in as well. Scout troops and FFA students have completed projects, planted trees and hosted fundraisers. Local teachers have helped with butterfly boxes and pet waste stations. Neighbors and businesses have donated time, equipment and labor to keep things moving.

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Fundraising remains one of the hardest parts. Grants take time to find and write, and major projects come with major costs. Even unexpected setbacks add up — when the playground was installed, crews discovered a massive footer left from the old school building, adding several thousand dollars and days of extra work.

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That reality makes every grant, donation and volunteer hour meaningful. SEI REMC Operation RoundUp grant funds helped support fencing around the play area, and grants like it are vital because they help volunteer-led projects move forward without relying on tax dollars.

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The park’s growth is not finished. The next major project is a bathroom and shelter. Brenda also envisions pickleball courts, pollinator patches and an outdoor amphitheater built into the natural slope of the land.

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“I want it to blend in,” she said.

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That unassuming vision is at the heart of the park. Brenda isn’t trying to create something flashy. She wants to bring back the kind of community life that can feel increasingly rare: grass, fresh air, sunshine, children playing and neighbors who recognize one another.

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The park also carries the history of the land beneath it. For generations, the former school property was a place where families gathered. The school once brought people together. Now, the park is doing the same — becoming the shared gathering point that North Dearborn has been missing.

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Brenda has seen a dad teaching his child to ride a bike on the path, friends meeting for walks and one runner who trained for a marathon on the park’s one-mile loop.

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“That’s exactly what the vision was,” Brenda said.

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She has also watched young people take ownership through volunteer projects. “This is their community,” she said. “When they’re adults, they’ll be able to go past there and say, ‘I planted that tree,’ or ‘I helped build that sign.’” 

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Brenda is humble about her own role, more comfortable talking about the volunteers and the community than herself. She wants people to see what is possible when a community starts somewhere and keeps going.

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“It doesn’t have to be big,” she said. “Start somewhere.”

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North Dearborn Community Park started with one idea, one need and one safe place to run. Today, it is growing into a shared heart for the community, built by neighbors who keep showing up.