Detroit Lakes — A community celebration took place Thursday, Sept. 25, at Detroit Lakes City Park as the Becker County Developmental Achievement Center (DAC) was recognized as a recipient of T-Mobile’s Homegrown Grant Program.
Becker County DAC was awarded $42,000—one of just 20 grants chosen nationwide out of 1,125 applications.
David Mauer of T-Mobile spoke about the purpose of the program, now in its fourth year.
“This is a community engagement program that we’ve been running for about four years in conjunction with our rural market and smaller market distribution growth,” Mauer said. “So this is just geared around things that are important to the community. There’s no business objective to this, this is about supporting the things that are important to the people we support.”
Becker County DAC Executive Director Sara Hill shared how the funds will be used to transform an empty lot next to the facility.
“We have a completely empty lot to the east of our facility right now that we just honestly haven’t figured out what to do with yet,” Hill explained. “When I found this grant, I said this is such a great way to give back to the people I serve. There is nowhere in Detroit Lakes that our wheelchairs can access a playground that is built for their wheelchair, and that is what we are going to do. It’ll be not only for our ambulatory clients, but it’s going to be for a wheelchair bound client so that everyone can participate.”
The planned accessible playground will serve not only clients of the DAC but also the broader community, ensuring that children and adults of all abilities can enjoy the space together.