good morning let me tell you I am extremely excited to be here this morning I get the opportunity to stand before all of you and to tell you about the inspiration in my life Morgan and to tell you how she has played such a major role in my life in the lives of so many people who have special needs now before I get into all the details of that I want to back up a little bit and tell you how I got to this point as was mentioned I was in the home building business land development business started when I was 19 and really loved the business and had an opportunity for 21 years to really get the business to run exactly like I wanted it to I had an opportunity to get into the mortgage business title business all sorts of different businesses and then 2005 came and a company out of California said we won't put you in retirement and if you remember back then business was really booming things were wild and crazy and the economy and so I said okay so I sold the companies and then I went from the day of running numerous companies to the point of then going okay what am I going to do in the second half of my life so many opportunities came to me I had an opportunity to get into different businesses reinvest in big ways and do some neat stuff but I also had the opportunity to take my daughter to school something I never had a chance to do I was able to go to Morgan's birthday parties and get to know her friends and talk to them and talk to parents he said let me tell you a little bit about Morgan Morgan just turned 18 years old but Morgan has special needs Morgan has a tough time adding two plus two she can get there but you got to work at it with her Morgan has a tough time reading a simple sentence she'll get there but it's tough and she'll get frustrated she'll get upset at herself and wish she was someone else Morgan is someone who has 26 screws in her back and two rods and two hangers to allow her to stand up straight let me tell you what Morgan has it's more important than anything she has an attitude that is absolutely incredible every night when we put her to bed she has a smile on her face every morning she has a smile on her face she has gone through all these different obstacles and things but always keeps an attitude that is incredibly strong and so through that inspiration and the opportunity to talk and see more and understand more about the special needs community instead of all the opportunities that may exist from a business perspective I decided maybe the second half of my life she'd be dedicated towards something else and that was all because of the inspiration and the attitude of this wonderful young lady now what does that mean well what I thought I had should do is build a foundation or form a foundation which I did and we do numerous things but one of the things that we wanted to do is we wanted to go out and build something or things as we were building the foundation that would be here for a long term would that be building medical facilities or different things in the community such as schools etc that would be here long lasting to help the special needs community but then something happened about five years ago that really caused what I'm here to talk about today and that is Morgan's Wonderland you see we were on a family trip and Morgan loves to go swimming she doesn't really know how to swim like a and she's not real good at it but she loves to flap around in the water and do what kids do we went down to the pool at the hotel and it was late and day it was a smaller hotel a smaller pool and there were three kids at the other end of the pool and there were two of them were throwing a ball back and forth and Morgan and I were to pull I got out and Morgan I saw was slowly inching her way over and she wanted to play with those kids she couldn't tell him that she didn't know how to really bring about that interaction so what happened is is Morgan started moving closer and closer she eventually hit the ball she got that close and the kids were looking at her like what are you doing Morgan just wanted to play what happened at that point is where this all happened those nice kids grabbed the ball and they all got out of the pool they got out of the pool because they didn't know what it would be like to really explore the habit of the joy and the happiness of playing was someone who maybe couldn't verbally say exactly what she wanted but she would just like them in so many ways but because they didn't understand that the interaction of play did not occur as Morgan turned around I saw her face and I thought to myself oh my god she just looked at me like I don't get it she didn't say anything she went back I jumped in the pool we played i sat there and we did we continued on for a couple weeks I after that vacation I kept thinking about that Turner Morgan's head to me and the look that she had and I have to tell you kept thinking about it thinking about it I said there's got to be a place that I can we can take Morgan to where everybody understands what's going on there in the element of play and there will be interaction between those who have special needs and those who don't have special needs I didn't know what that meant so I thought well I'll call some people I'll go around look at different parks in the country just to see if there's something outside that we could replicate or take Morgan to or do something so somehow bring that barrier down to where the next time there are kids in that pool they'll go hey come on over they'll understand and that play will occur so I went around the country looking at a different place --is that at least we're told that may be in line and nothing was closed what I found if anything had anything to tie with special needs that a lot of times it was off the beaten path it wasn't in the middle of everything else it was all kind of by itself and I said to myself let's do one of these in San Antonio what is this I don't know what I'm going to do I'm just going to do it so I invited a bunch of people to a meeting to talk about the idea of building this part but and I just had a sheet of paper behind me that was basically white and I said I got this idea tell you what happened and we can do better nine invited doctors and therapists and teachers and people who have special needs and we all spent hours and hours and hundreds of people showed up I thought this is kind of cool because we don't really know what we're even gonna be talking about doli and they all showed up and we went over and we went over and over and talked about if we built this park with the theory of and the idea of trying to bring down that barrier what would be in it well what I heard was numerous things eight and a half pages of single tight ideas then I said okay what I want to do is I want to get outside the box I want to hire people to do this who have never done a part before I want to hire an architect who's never done a part before I wanted to hire an engineer who's never done a part before I want to hire graphics people have never done a part before because I'm gonna be told by them how you're supposed to build a park and we're gonna be different this time so all these people who in did everything from Morgan's Wonderland had never done it before that was the cool part what they had those some real grassroots ideas presented by people in the middle of it all the people who really work with special needs individuals on a daily basis and understand it and those who has special needs themselves what I heard more than anything was give us a place that is safe you see if I have a child who's autistic to go to the park is tough because you never know when that child might take a run wouldn't we need to go to a park and know that somehow if that child did run that you could kind of relax for a little bit so when you go to Morgan's Wonderland everybody gets an RFID tag so we know exactly where they are at all times in the parking you can find them through any of the video screens that exist throughout the park the reason that exists is so that you can sit in if Johnny runs off it's okay you can go find them you know exactly where he is and you'll know everybody in your party within three seconds we brought that kind of technology and we also said not only do we want a safe place but we want a good environment we want an environment that's a little different does that mean well think about it if you're in a wheelchair and you go to these wonderful places do great job from an 88 perspective gives new world in all these places but the crowds and the time it might take to do something and impatience of people because they aren't sometimes old at Morgan's women let's build a place that maybe could hold 4,500 or 5,000 people but let's not ever have more than about 1,500 or 2,000 in there this build it bigger so that the environment is one to where if you want to get on to a carousel and it takes longer because our carousel allows no matter what your physical or mental special need may be that we will allow you an opportunity to get on that carousel and if it takes ten minutes see if the culture of Morgan's Wonderland it's okay we'll help you and get you on that carousel and everybody is patient because that's what Morgan's Wonderland is about there is no other carousel like the one at Morgan's Wonderland there is no other off-road adventure ride like the one at Morgan's Wonderland there is no other Train like the one that is at Morgan's Wonderland these aren't big magical ideas what we did basically at Morgan's Wonderland I'm so proud of the people who had never done this before but they said this look we are going to design a park for special needs but we're going to build it for everyone because when you walk into Morgan's Wonderland it looks like any other park you don't see ramps and all that kind of stuff it's a place where you walk in and go I can play here know whether I have a special need or not but those who do have special needs they can do everything we take the most fragile children and adults those who are on ventilators those who sometimes unfortunately just have three days to live who say then the family says can they come over there and have an opportunity we had a child come to Morgan's Wonderland that was three days before he died he had an opportunity he smiled he had that because he was able to do what he wanted to do and the family knew what he wanted to do and he couldn't have done it anywhere else in the world except that this unique part now as I talked earlier when I got to know Morgan's friends and families and stuff what I found out his morning was really one of the lucky ones you see Morgan has what she needs she has a physical therapist and the doctors and the and all that because I've been blessed to be able to give that to her but see I noticed that many times those with special needs don't have always all those economic opportunities to give their child are those who they care for what they really need so we made it early on and commitment that anyone who comes to Morgan's Wonderland always comes for free always comes for free it doesn't matter we don't look it up in a book and define what special needs is if you say you have a special needs when you especially need when you come to the front you get in for free we figure if you lie about it you have a special need and so it's it's it's it's our approach saying we are here because we're gonna give you a break and we're gonna allow it the opportunity that if you want to come to this park thirty times a year you come to the park 30 times a year and you can ride to Train seven times if you want to and we have some children who just stay on the train the whole time that's what they want that's that consistency is what they like at another place could they do that no no now through this entire process it's been amazing to see what has occurred I have to tell you a story about Morgan it kind of gives you a sense of what a place like this does I know what people he's asked me what does Morgan like to do when she goes to the park well at first all she would do is go on the swings we have 35 swings five different kinds whether you're in a wheelchair whatever your physical or mental special need maybe you can swing at Morgan's Wornall Morgan we just go on the swings I see Morgan let's go on the carousel no shooing too close to it just scared of it all right let's go no let's go stand next to the carousel okay finally she did that then Morgan after a while eventually said I said Morgan let's just go and sit on an animal no okay finally she did that then we got her on an elephant couldn't can go just will sit on and then Morgan and then getting her off the elevator was in ur thumb will go under but then the next time we went Morgan said we wanted to go to the carousel and when she went to the carousel now she'd get on it and she would go one time real slow remember everybody else is in the park and enjoying the park with her at this point no pressure there's no pressure it's just simply but here's the neat thing Morgan now when she goes to the park goes to the carousel first and rides it on her own okay well why is that a big deal well Morgan now when she finishes the first time she looked at me said are you proud of me Dad yeah and that's what happens at Morgan's Wonderland you take a child who it seems like a small thing to write on a caer so that's a big deal little things are big things and at Morgan's Wonderland through Play they learn they learn that they have the opportunity to achieve something just as even if it's a small thing just riding a carousel Morgan doesn't want me near the carousel when she rides now because she doesn't independently and it's taught her something and on the 26 different attractions that fit in this thirty-five million dollar park ultra accessible park it gives opportunities to thousands tens of thousands and I'm happy to say over two hundred thousand people in such a short period have already been through the park not just from here matter of fact one out of two people who come to spark going come from this area they come from outside here they come from outside this the state they come from outside this country thirty four different countries have been represented at Morgan's Wonderland already and here's the neat thing we don't have a marketing budget it's all done by word of mouth because those who have special needs and those who are caregivers and those who are involved in this whole thing are really tight-knit people and they're starving for something like this I didn't know that at first I knew they were but I did after I had that first meeting where my said yeah there's something here but what was the neatest thing about that meeting is once that happened and started is that how this community and the community even outside the city all joined together you see we just started this idea in 2007 when we actually started thinking let's talk about this we finished it thirty nine months later we raised almost all the money we're about five six million dollars short of raising all the 435 million dollars but we did it because of passionate people who came together quickly and said the time has been too long for something like this remember five and a half percent of population requires assistance every day or they cannot make it through there there's fifteen percent of the population is special-needs we're not talking from a million people we're talking 50 million people in this country who are special need it's a big big number and we're just scratching your surface since we don't have a marketing budget it's word of mouth but we are seeing people come from all over and finding always make a wish we are one the top locations for make-a-wish people come here because this is a place they can go anywhere but Morgan's Wonderland is special it is a special place for our special friends and for all those it's not just about the special needs in the video though it's about everybody being able to play together three out of four people who come to Moore is where I don't have a special need you see they join in with those who have especially and it brings down that barrier that happened in that pool because then that child who is 21 years old who has the mental capacity of a five year old who's playing in that sand Circle feels very comfortable and he's got eight year olds and twelve year olds playing right around him and that brings down that barrier and that allows him who could go nowhere else and playing a fan circle the opportunity to do that but do it in an environment that he loves a place that he feels safe his family feels comfortable and everybody is working in conjunction for the element of inclusion that's Morgan's Wonderland that's Morgan's one life now when you let people a lot of them in for free and you put on a lot of free things you don't you're not going to make money that's what Morgan's Wonderland is not about it's not about selling tickets it's about offering a service now how did you do that well I wanted to put something together working with a lot of wonderful people that would would do two things one being economics and one being about explaining that whole element of inclusion and that is next to Morgan's Wonderland is a seventy-five acres Soccer Park so people always ask me I don't get it Gordon soccer especially I don't get it soccer plays a big role why soccer well on what in our thoughts and my feeling about all this is that we need to bring something to San Antonio and there's a sport in San Antonio that I didn't feel was really being properly dealt with from the standpoint of giving quality facilities to and that was soccer so why don't we take something help the overall community tie it next door to a special needs a part that is for those with special needs in the entire community so when thousands of people come and play soccer on these four of 14 different fields they will get that and ask the question what is it and then it will bring awareness you think it brings awareness so you do something good with your community you bring awareness but then you do another thing we rent those fields into renting these top-quality fields we bring money over to Morgan's Wonderland to help with the operations of it it's incredible you can go there and see 7,000 people on a weekend play soccer on these fields when these big tournaments go and these tournaments don't just come from San Antonio this region they come from around the state and around the country but when they come here they learn they learn and it brings the exposure up of those who have special needs in the idea of inclusion so let's take it one step further last year we bought a pro soccer team and we're bringing it to San Antonio they'll start play they'll start playing in six months across the street from Morgan's woodland but then there's going to be a community stadium built right across the street from Morgan's water line and so through that through the Scorpions through all the different events that occur in this community stadium that is being built all with private funds what will ultimately happen is we will bring hundreds of thousands of people and through the most popular sport in the world every time that team travels around North America competing it will be able to talk about soccer but it will also be able to talk about Morgan's Wonderland what is Moreland it's a place of inclusion we all bring people together so it plays a revenue source because money from that will ultimately go to Morgan's winner oil 100% but it will also bring awareness to what it's all about so Morgan's Wonderland is not just the sticks and bricks to me it's about a movement it's about an approach of being able to do something different it's about the idea of saying the time is now to get outside the box let me in was one little thought I get letters and emails from people all the time basically daily telling me about Morgan's Wonderland I love reading him but I got one the other day I want to share with you and it's this lady who this young lady who was leaving with her daughter who was autistic and as they were walking out to the car the young daughter said mom did we just leave heaven and when she told me that I thought to myself we've got a little heaven here on earth at Morgan's one life thank you very much the opportunity