Harding Park kickball fundraiser backs future inline skating rink

Harding Park will turn into a summer kickball field Wednesday night as the Ferndale Police Department, Ferndale Firefighters, city staff and residents gather for the Rink Rollout Rally, a free community fundraiser at 6:00 p.m. The matchup is meant to do more than fill a park on a warm July evening. It is designed to help pay for a new inline skating rink at Harding Park, and spectators are being invited to come for a popsicle and free swag while the game plays out.

The city is using the event to push a matching-grant campaign with a hard deadline on Friday, July 10, 2026. Ferndale is trying to reach a $62,500 crowdfunding goal, which would trigger a dollar-for-dollar match from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The campaign sits inside the Public Spaces Community Places program, a partnership that also includes the Michigan Municipal League and Patronicity, and the program had provided more than $14.7 million in matching grants by May 5, 2026.

That funding matters because the existing Harding Park Inline Skating Rink has been part of Ferndale life for more than 50 years. City materials say repairs are no longer feasible, and the replacement project is being framed as a safe, inclusive and fully accessible upgrade for skaters of all abilities. The planned rink would include new sports flooring, barrier-free accessible pathways, benches, trash and recycling bins, native landscaping to address standing water near the rink and additional handicapped parking spaces.

The crowd at the kickball game is likely to tell the story as much as the donation total. Police officers, firefighters, staff members and residents sharing the same field gives the fundraiser an unusually broad base for a neighborhood sports event, and that crossover is the point. It turns a low-barrier kickball night into a visible test of buy-in for a project that has already drawn earlier grant support, including $100,000 in funding to replace the rink. If Ferndale clears the July 10 deadline, the July 8 rally will have done more than stage a friendly game. It will have helped move a longtime park feature toward a modern rebuild.