Bringing Light to Morehart Park

Bringing Light to

Morehart Park

Community parks are meant to be a place of laughter, family, children and fun.

A place of light, not darkness.

Morehart Park is a 20 plus acre Community Park located in Southwest Little Rock. The park is located directly across the street from Mabelvale Elementary School.

If you walked into the park before Sat, November the 9th, you would have seen a playground, a softball field, and a tennis and basketball court. You would not have seen the walking paths. You would not been able to see into the woods. Denseundergrowth blocked the light. The park did not feel safe.


Gayle Owen, Supervisor of Volunteers in Park and Ron Ross, Manager, Little Rock Park Service, said they wanted to open up the park so people could see into the woods. Their desire was for more people to feel safe coming to the park and thus with more people present, it would be less likely that inappropriate activity would occur.


Sharefest 2008 was the catalyst for eight churches to provide 200 volunteers. One church, Mabevale Methodist involved the local Boy Scout troop.

What happens when these Sharefest

volunteers showed up in mass?

In less than six hours, bathrooms and baseball stands were painted, underbrush on several acres cleared, and pathways were uncovered. Mike Cagle, Outreach Minister at Little Rock Church said that he was “amazed, given the size of the project, how everyone showed up, everyone knew what to do and went right to it.”

By lunch time, the park had a new look. Darian Smith, Principle of Mabevale Elementary School, dropped by during lunch to express his appreciation. He spoke of a homicide last year involving the father of one of his students.

His hope, along with the prayers of the church community is that God's light will make the park once again a safe place for the community to enjoy.