When Ryan Nittinger and Thomas Smith decided they wanted to build a disc golf course at Indian Park, it turned out so did a lot of other people in the region.
After deciding to build the course in January, the pair of disc golf enthusiasts started a GoFundMe page and raised nearly $7,000. It was enough to purchase and place the 18 baskets around Indian Park, according to Nittinger and Smith.
“It’s grassroots. Tom put it out to the disc golf community at large,” Nittinger said.
Volunteers were eager to come together for a work day to help build the course and since it has opened to the public groups of eager players have flooded the course, some throwing a disc for the first time.
“That, to me, was like, this is the right thing,” Nittinger said. “Overwhelmingly, it’s been a positive response so far.”
Nittinger found his passion for disc golf two year ago through Smith, who has been playing since he was 14.
Like many sports, the love of the game is only part of enjoyment of the course. For Smith and Nittinger, it’s about the people and the community who come together and build relationships.
“All the people we play with are just fun to be around,” Smith said. “I don’t think it would matter what we were doing as long as you were with those people who play this sport.”
“We just want people to come and play. … we want people from all walks of life to come and play,” Nittinger said.
The Indian Park Disc Golf group is a nonprofit organization and funded primarily through donations.
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