Maddie Potts Foundation breaks floor on memorial discipline household

Wooden RIVER JCT. — On what would have been Maddie Potts’ 21st birthday, pals, household users and school officials gathered Sunday early morning close to the Chariho athletic fields to split ground on the point out-of-the-artwork Maddie Potts Memorial Field Home.

Maddie, a 17-calendar year-outdated Chariho athlete and women soccer group captain, collapsed on the discipline and died following suffering a mind aneurysm throughout a game on Sept. 24, 2017. Her mom and dad, Stephanie and Dan, established the Maddie Potts Foundation in her honor quickly soon after her passing, and they have been raising funds to make a new industry home at the Chariho campus in her memory.

Stephanie Potts, Maddie’s mother, stated she was delighted to see the project occur to fruition.

“This is as unthinkable as our own reduction of Maddie 3 yrs in the past,” she explained.

The $700,000 facility, which is envisioned to encompass around 3,000 sq. feet, will function a non-public area for both of those Chariho and checking out groups, indoor bathrooms and an athletic coaching room.

At the centre of the facility will be the Maddie Mentality Atrium, made to host each athletic senior nights and other neighborhood occasions. Stephanie Potts said the project will satisfy the requirements of the neighborhood and add in some needs as well.

The term “Maddie Mentality,” which is used greatly by the foundation and Chariho pupils, is based on Maddie’s willingness to assistance others and give again to the group.

“She was very humble,” Potts said. “She did not like any of this notice on her, but she was also the most type, compassionate, considerate person [who] seriously apprehensive about generating guaranteed anyone else was all right.”

The typical contractor for the venture, David Ducharme of E. Turgeon Building Corp., stated he is happy to be a aspect of the job.

“It’s truly a thing we’re happy of as a firm, and it’s a little something that I’m proud to be a component of as a neighborhood [member],” Ducharme explained. “Thanks for letting me aid, and let us build a industry residence.”

In addition to the discipline home undertaking, the Maddie Potts Foundation also awards scholarships to higher school seniors and supports Chariho’s sports teams.

Chariho athletic director Michael Shiels, who also serves on the subject house setting up committee, expressed his appreciation for the foundation’s help.

“Certainly a fieldhouse would finalize the campus,” Shiels stated. “The Potts foundation does so a lot of various factors, and [the field house] is just one more great instance of that.”

In the three a long time considering that the foundation’s development, it has also grieved the decline of some of its most dedicated supporters. Last May possibly, Maddie’s best friend and teammate, Hallie Linacre, handed absent unexpectedly, and very last month the foundation’s treasurer, Keith Frost, also unexpectedly handed away. Frost shared a birthday with Maddie, and would have turned 51 on Sunday.

Stephanie Potts described both of those conditions as “another family’s worst nightmare … taking place to a person of our possess.” She explained the foundation will do anything it can to honor their contributions to the basis and the group.

The discipline house challenge gained approval from the Chariho towns in March 2019, and it obtained unanimous approval from the Chariho University Committee later that calendar year. The task will not demand any taxpayer dollars and it will be fully funded by the Maddie Potts Foundation and its supporters.

“The group assist has been the only way we have been in a position to do what we do,” Stephanie Potts said.

Construction on the project will commence soon right after the ultimate permit approvals and is anticipated to take about 16 weeks. The target for finishing the facility is September, which would mark the fourth anniversary of Maddie’s passing.

Stephanie Potts claimed the foundation will keep on to give back to the community in Maddie’s honor.

“I reported from the commencing that absolutely everyone will have a location in this reduction and in the journey,” Potts stated. “The Maddie Potts Basis will be below very long just after I’m absent, and it will carry on to give back in all of the techniques that Maddie would have accomplished herself.”