East Prairie becomes site of county’s first disc golf course
By Kayleigh Rahn
East Prairie Middle School has become the home of the first disc golf course in Douglas County with support from the Kiwanis Club and community members.
Kiwanian Dave Morgan spearheaded the effort, but he says the accomplishment came with big support from his club and the greater community.
“The Kiwanis mission is to serve the children of the world,” Morgan said. “As we thought about our mission and the children of our community, we started looking for a project that would benefit the children of Tuscola.”
Morgan said many Kiwanians have come across disc golf courses before and thought it could be something the kids, as well as their families, would enjoy.
“Once the idea was brought forward we had several Kiwanis members and some business leaders step forward to donate money and services to complete the project,” he said.
Tuscola Home Center donated equipment and supplies, Winn Welding donated time to fabricate the tee box, and many community members and businesses donated to the cause to help pay for the baskets. Once the equipment was available, a group of Kiwanis members constructed the nine-hole disc golf course and members donated sets of discs to be used by students along the course.
Disc golf is actually quite similar to golf. Competitors play a round of usually nine or 18 holes. Each hole provides a tee position and a target, usually a chain link basket, a distance away with, oftentimes, obstacles between the beginning and ending points. As the competitor throws the disc toward the target he or she must pick up the disc where it lands and throw again until he or she reaches the target. Much like golf, the object is to finish the course with the lowest number of throws.
“When we started looking for locations to construct the course we decided that East Prairie School had the best location and the volume of kids that might want to utilize it,” Morgan said.
The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Dec. 5 edition of The Tuscola Journal.