Harrell family donates $1.3M to Bonnet Springs Park
LAKELAND — A generous donation and complimentary state grant will supply more than $1.5 million toward the construction of a botanical garden at Bonnet Springs Park.
The park announced Jack Harrell Jr., CEO of Harrell's, and his wife, Tina, made a $1.3 million donation to the park's capital campaign.
“My family and I are honored to join the Barnett Family in support of this incredible park development that is going to bring such significant change to an entire section of the city,” Jack Harrell Jr. said.
The Harrell's family gift will be used to pay for construction of a 6-acre botanical garden and greenhouse that places a special emphasis on engaging all five senses, according to Donna Henricks, co-chair of the park's steering committee. It will be named The Jack & Tina Harrell Family Botanical Garden and The Jack & Tina Harrell Family Greenhouse.
“To see such a monumental endeavor like this park opening up in downtown Lakeland is incredibly exciting,” Tina Harrell, president of Harrell Family Charities, said. “The recreational and educational opportunities of this park seem boundless for families and people of all ages.”
In addition to their donation, the family has promised its national agricultural company, Harrell's, will provide a 25-year supply of fertilizer and plant nutritional products to help take care of the future 180-acre park free of charge.
“This is an extremely generous legacy gift that will be the impetus for the silent phase of our capital campaign,” Henricks said.
As Bonnet Springs gears up for construction, Henricks said the capital campaign will launch with a goal of raising $25 million. The funds will be used to offset the park's total cost of roughly $80 million, according to co-developer David Bunch.
The park will receive help in making its vision a reality from Platform Art, a Lakeland-based nonprofit whose mission is to commission public art pieces. Cynthia Haffey, executive director of Platform Art, said her organization has received a $25,000 state grant to design and construct a sculpture that will be placed in the botanical garden.
“We have taken it upon ourselves to make this our project for 2020,” she said.
Haffey said Platform Art is working in partnership with NuVu Innovation Studies at All Saints Academy, where high school students have drawn up conceptual renderings for a sculpture to engage one or more of the five senses.
“We have selected five that right to the top have concepts that are good,” she said.
The students' designs have been sent off to nationally recognized artists Becky Ault and Mike Cunningham, of Art Research Enterprises in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They were previously commissioned to produce the “Tribute to Linemen” sculpture erected between Lakeland Electric's headquarters and Lake Mirror in 2018.
Haffey said the two sculptors will further narrow down which of the students' designs are feasible for fabrication. The designs selected will be publicly revealed at a Sept. 3 reception.
The selected All Saints students will then travel to Pennsylvania to aid Ault in creating the sculpture, which will be installed at Bonnet Springs in the summer of 2020. Haffey said she hopes it will be the first of many.
“I imagine we'll stay in touch with Bonnet Springs and we'll do multiple projects with them over time,” she said.
The tentative opening date of Bonnet Springs Park has been officially pushed back from December 2020 to the spring of 2021, according to Henricks.
Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545.
