Morgan Wallen Foundation funds $140k renovation of Gibbs Youth Sports facilities

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — It’s been planned for months that Morgan Wallen will be performing two concerts at Neyland Stadium this weekend, but the country music star decided to surprise his former high school with a grant through his foundation as well.

The Morgan Wallen Foundation held a press conference on Thursday to announce a $140,000 donation to Gibbs Youth Sports.

Leslie Wallen, the country star’s mother and director of the foundation, as well as executive director Kathleen Flaherty attended the event Thursday and shared a video with a special message from Wallen.

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“This is a special weekend for me to be able to to come back on the play Neyland and I just want to say thank you to everybody in in Knoxville for their support over the years and to celebrate that I wanted to give a donation of my foundation to the Gibbs Youth Sports. And we’re going to do a renovation of the Gibbs Ruritan Park. We’re going to be doing a lot of work there, but basically, the overall gist of it is they’re going to make the the park usable all year round for the kids there.” Wallen said in the video.

The foundation confirmed on Thursday that the grant will remodel the field house, including a second floor with indoor batting cages, pitching lanes and fielding area. The remodel will allow children to practice year-round in all weather. The project is expected to include:

• Drainage and Leveling: all fields

• Scoreboard overhaul

• Field 6 and 7 overhaul

• Field Dugout overhaul

• Electrical to each field

• Light timer installation – automatic timer installed to light boxes so that kids can always access the fields

• Concession stand makeover

Nate Stacy, the president of Gibbs Youth Sports said he was thankful for Wallen and the foundation’s grant that will allow the park to become one of the premier parks in Knox County.

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“I’d like to thank God first for bringing Miss Wallen, and the Morgan Wallen Foundation into our lives, because without them, we wouldn’t be here. Miss Wallen, Kathleen. Our conversations they were two weeks apart, but they were always so deep in what they could do to to benefit our organization and how Morgan might be able to help us,” Stacy said. “It started with the little things we could do and it turned into a big list and we kept praying and asking. Because without what we’ve talked about, we’d be 15 years behind on getting these repairs done by ourselves. So I can’t thank them enough. I can’t thank Mr. Wallen for what he’s doing, remembering who he is, what it was like to play youth baseball and recreational set or travel ball set.”

Wallen played baseball at Gibbs while he was in high school. A major injury led him to revisit his love for music. Years later, Wallen is a country music star with a foundation to help ensure young people can have access to the same opportunities he had in sports and music.

This isn’t the first time Wallen has paid it forward to the Knox County community. In 2023, Wallen donated $35,000 to Gibbs High School for their baseball and music programs, and he also performed a free concert at the school.

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