Carolina Strong: Family brings barrier-breaking changing table to local parks

CONCORD, N.C. — It may seem small but something inside the bathroom at a Concord park is creating change for the entire community.

Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis visited with the family behind Willow’s Wish Foundation to learn more about their mission to create inclusive, safe, and sustainable public spaces.

“When we started walking in those shoes and traveling that path, we realized things that we never saw before,” Mark Dail told Channel 9.

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That path Mark and Erika Dail found themselves on – the wonderful and wild world of parenthood – led them to a barrier-breaking idea in the form of a changing table at a public bathroom in Concord’s Dorton Park.

“The typical changing table that you find, there’s a limit for that: a weight limit, a length limit, and there’s also a limit for how high it is off the ground and someone’s capability – a caregiver, mom, or a dad – to be able to actually lift that person or that individual up,” Mark said.

So, Mark said his family set out to bring Cabarrus County its first inclusive changing table. It’s one of only a handful in North Carolina.

Family’s barrier-breaking changing table promotes inclusivity at Cabarrus County parks — Carolina Strong: Family’s barrier-breaking changing table promotes inclusivity at Concord parks

“We noticed the exclusion, the separation, the segregation that we were experiencing because we couldn’t actually get out as a family and enjoy places for long periods of times, like this park,” Mark said.

Shortly after their daughter Willow was born, she was diagnosed with a rare trisomy condition. They began noticing inadequacies and challenges in public spaces, especially as Willow grew.

“It’s not just Willow. It is the elderly. It is quadriplegics, it’s disabled veterans, it’s those that have any physical impairment that may need that type of assistance,” Mark said.

The table has been at Dorton Park just about two months and the Dails told Channel 9 people are stopping by the park just to use it.

“There’s so many other things that we need to be doing to accommodate – just little things that could be done that could be making such a huge difference for families, caregivers, parents, to feel welcome in these spaces and invited to these spaces,” Erika said.

“Because just as important as it is for us to get Willow and our family out, it is equally as important for the community to interact with our family and families like ours,” Erika said.

Mark and Erika said three more tables are planned for Concord parks in the next year in partnership with the city.

They’re doing it through their organization Willow’s Wish Foundation, which relies on donations. The foundation is having an event next Friday at Cabarrus Brewing Company.

To learn more or donate, click here.

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