Using funds raised during the premiere celebration of Freebird... The Movie in Atlanta, Georgia, the Freebird Foundation, Inc. purchased and installed a new modular playground structure for the Ronnie VanZant Memorial Park near Lake Asbury, Florida. This 50,000 dollar playground is one of the largest play structures around Jacksonville.

Originally scheduled on December 7, 1996, the ribbon cutting ceremony had to be postponed due to rain -- but that didn't stop dedicated fans Brian and Mary Nash of Moultrie, Georgia. They left their home that morning at 5 am to make it to Jacksonville in time for the ceremony. They have a nice videotape of the new playground in the rain!!

A clear, beautiful Florida day met the Nash's and other Skynyrd fans who arrived the following Saturday for the postponed event. After a short introduction by Jack Brooker, head of Clay County's Recreational Department, both Judy and Melody VanZant spoke about how important the children of Clay County were to them and were to Ronnie VanZant. "Ronnie loved kids," said Judy, "And he would be very proud of his park." Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, Judy and Melody "officially" opened the playground by sliding down the slide.

Jack Brooker then took Judy, Melody and other Foundation representatives on a tour through the entire 90 acres of the park pointing out recent County improvements like new picnic shelters and additional basketball courts. It was exciting for everyone to see all the progress that has been made in the past few months, especially on the five acre fishing pond. It is completely dug now and a natural spring has been cleaning and filling the pond. By summer the pond will have been completely landscaped and within a year the pond will be healthy enough to stock for fishing. This has been one of the more ambitious projects undertaken at the park and its great seeing the pond take shape.

Judy wants to work on developing a soccer complex at the park in 1997. The Foundation hopes to fund six soccer fields and develop league play for kids and adults. Soccer is starting to take hold in Jacksonville, but the facilities are limited so this new complex will be a great benefit to the entire area.