Connecting Everyone to the Outdoors in Georgia!
With the many challenges facing our nation, communities in Georgia and beyond are eager for solutions. YOU are part of the solution. Together, we are not just dreaming of a healthier, more equitable, more climate-resilient future—we are actively building it.
TPL is committed to creating more places that bring us outside—parks, trails, play spaces, and public lands—and making them available and welcoming to everyone, everywhere. From the Chattahoochee RiverLands to Community Schoolyards® sites, TPL is partnering with local communities to create parks and protect public lands where they are needed most.
This year, we began restoring the historic Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, with the goal to incorporate it into Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. The Lodge building is most famous for housing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference for four decades. The addition of the Lodge to the national park will deepen visitors’ understanding of Dr. King’s work.
Our Georgia Community Schoolyards program continues to grow. We transformed four Atlanta Public School schoolyards, creating green spaces that improve students’ health, reduce disparities, and strengthen neighborhoods. We’ve completed eight schoolyards in total and expanded partnerships to schools in DeKalb and Fulton Counties.
WELCOMING TPL’S NEW CEO
Significant progress was made on the Chattahoochee RiverLands, a visionary 100-mile outdoor experience connecting 1 million people to parks, trails, and waterways. The RiverLands Showcase in Cobb County, which will feature 150 acres of parkland, kayak launches, hiking and biking trails, and other amenities, is expected to be completed in 2026. The Camp + Paddle Trail, open fall 2024, offers a 48-mile kayaking experience with ADA-accessible launches and campsites. At McIntosh Reserve, we nearly tripled the park’s size to 1,422 acres, connecting it to Chattahoochee Bend State Park and creating contiguous green space of more than 4,000 acres.
As TPL looks to the future, we remain committed to our vision of a world where every person can connect with the outdoors. We sincerely appreciate your steadfast support of TPL. Thank you for partnering with us on this journey.
George Dusenbury VP for
the Southeast and Georgia State Director
We are thrilled to welcome our new President and CEO, Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser. She brings a wealth of experience in public policy, philanthropy, the outdoor industry, and community engagement, making her an ideal leader for TPL’s next chapter. Most recently, she served as President and CEO of Colorado Mountain College. She has served on numerous boards including the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, Great Outdoors Colorado, and American Rivers. Carrie’s leadership will be instrumental as we amplify our efforts to expand outdoor access through equity, health, climate, and community commitments.
Preserving Civil Rights History
The Prince Hall Masonic Lodge is most famous for housing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) for four decades. SCLC engaged in nonviolent direct action to eliminate segregation in public accommodations and secure voting rights. From their headquarters in the Lodge building, they planned the Selma to Montgomery march, the Chicago desegregation fight, opposition to the Vietnam War, and the multiracial Poor People’s Campaign.
Built in 1940 by John Wesley Dobbs, the Lodge building has been home to important African American organizations such as the Atlanta Civic-Political League, a votingrights organization; the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a labor organization; and the SCLC. Madam C.J. Walker, America’s first self-made female millionaire, located one of her Beauty Shoppe’s in the building. It also served as home to WERD, the nation’s first Blackowned and operated radio station. This building, steeped in civil rights history, has unfortunately fallen into disrepair.
CONSERVING BLACK HISTORY AND CULTURE
Join us as we create, protect, and activate public spaces of historical and cultural significance to Black communities across the country.
In 2018, Congress expanded the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park boundaries to include the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, which will invite visitors to learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s adult life and activism. TPL is partnering with the leadership of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge to restore and conserve the Lodge as an addition to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park—our latest in over a dozen efforts in the park over the last four decades.
We are proud to share that we successfully raised $4.5 million needed to help restore the Lodge. We anticipate the building being open to the public in the fall of 2025. Once the building is restored, the National Park Service will provide access and guided site tours. Adding the restored Lodge and SCLC’s office to the historic park’s existing destinations will create a more immersive and comprehensive telling of the vivid and honest history of America’s failures and triumphs in the struggle for civil rights. Here, visitors will learn about King’s activities with the SCLC and the history of the organizations that occupied the Masonic Building.
Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Temple PHOTO COURTESY OF ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER
Transforming Georgia Schoolyards
TPL is dedicated to building community and improving health, climate resilience, and education outcomes in Georgia’s schoolyards. Our vision is for dynamic, nature-rich schoolyards to be a model for creating more equitable communities. Through our Community Schoolyard® program, TPL partners with local schools to transform underutilized schoolyards into vibrant, green spaces that improve the daily lives of students, educators, and the surrounding community.
Our schoolyard projects promote a healthy lifestyle, reduce educational disparities, and improve educational outcomes while making vulnerable communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change. According to teachers and school administration, attendance, behavior, and test scores all improve after schoolyard renovations, and we look forward to extending these benefits to students across the state. These park-like spaces are open to the community after school hours and can help address public health, student learning, and climate change.
TPL launched the Georgia Community Schoolyards program in 2019 with Atlanta Public Schools (APS), Park Pride, and Urban Land Institute Atlanta to transform 10 schoolyards, delivering outdoor access for students, teachers, families, and neighbors across the city.
Last year, we celebrated ribbon cuttings at four schools—Centennial Academy, Harper-Archer Elementary School, Price Middle School, and Scott Elementary School—totaling eight completed APS schoolyards. We are on track to complete the remaining two schoolyards of the original 10 this year.
We continue to deepen our partnerships to bring more Community Schoolyards to students and neighbors in Georgia and are expanding our work in Atlanta, DeKalb County, and Fulton County. In the next year, we plan to open a total of six schoolyards across the state.
Community Schoolyards: Donate today to grow our Community Schoolyard efforts in Georgia, strengthen communities, improve health and education outcomes, and build nature-based climate solutions.
2024 COMPLETED SCHOOLYARDS
Centennial Academy: The outdoor reading garden features outdoor musical instruments, native landscape plants, a reading themed mural, and an outdoor classroom with circular seating and free little libraries with books for all ages for the community to borrow and share.
Harper-Archer Elementary: New features include an inspiring mural, new outdoor exercise equipment, a shade pavilion, and benches located under mature trees to provide a place to rest and enjoy the site’s natural features.
Price Middle School: The new schoolyard features a timber shade structure, climbing wall, outdoor fitness equipment, accessible walking path, raised garden planters, and a collection of on-site furniture.
Scott Elementary School: With a brand-new steel shade pavilion, half-court basketball court, fencing, and two new playgrounds, there is something fun for everyone at this new playground.
PHOTOS BY TPL STAFF
Connecting Communities to Their River
The Chattahoochee RiverLands will connect nearly 1 million people in Georgia to the outdoors through a stretch of parks, paths, restored sites, and paddling trails. Once this visionary and generational effort is realized, residents and visitors alike will be able to kayak, camp, bicycle, walk, and wheel along the 100-mile section of the river between Buford Dam and Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Together with 20 cities, 7 counties, and nearly 80 partner organizations, TPL is shepherding this effort to deliver improved environmental, health, climate, equity, transportation, and community resilience outcomes.
RiverLands Showcase, Cobb County
The RiverLands Showcase features approximately 150 acres of parkland, three miles of greenway trail, two new trailhead parks, and various forms of water access, including a new kayak launch and boat ramp. It will connect a new mixed-use development in Smyrna through a 100-acre woodland park featuring Civil War
earthworks to a new gateway park at the intersection of Mableton Parkway and the river.
To date, TPL has successfully raised $19.25 million in philanthropic support and has assisted local jurisdictions in securing nearly $24 million for this exciting project. Construction of the Showcase is expected to be completed in 2026.
The RiverLands Showcase will demonstrate the potential of the Chattahoochee RiverLands. It will allow visitors to immerse themselves in the RiverLands experience, demonstrating how access to the river and the outdoors can foster a strong outdoor culture that improves quality of life for nearby communities.
RiverLands Gateway Park
The downstream anchor of the RiverLands Showcase project, the proposed RiverLands Gateway Park, was awarded a $3 million grant through the very competitive Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program. We now have
PHOTOS BY DAVID RYDER
the funds necessary to begin park construction on the 8.7-acre park at the corner of Mableton Parkway and Discovery Boulevard. We anticipate that designing, permitting, and fundraising will continue through spring 2025, with construction beginning in summer 2025 and opening in 2026.
Camp + Paddle Trail
Opening in fall 2024, the Camp + Paddle Trail will make the Chattahoochee River more accessible to kayakers, canoers, and campers. It is the first step in implementing a transformational river trail. This trail offers an opportunity to explore 48 miles of the Chattahoochee River over a threenight, four-day itinerary. The journey begins at Standing Peachtree in North Atlanta and ends at McIntosh Reserve in Carroll County.
Beginning at the northernmost site of the trail, construction is underway at the Standing Peachtree kayak launch, complete with a fully ADA-accessible path to the water, woodland restoration, and a floating dock with an accessible kayak launch. Construction is also underway in Chattahoochee Hills, bringing new amenities such as two pavilions with restrooms and showers, walking trails, campsites, and an ADA-accessible kayak launch.
All told this project will create a world-class recreational destination in the heart of metro Atlanta.
McIntosh Reserve
Nestled among the rolling hills of Carroll County along the Chattahoochee River lies the McIntosh Reserve Park. Its natural beauty, recreational opportunities, and ecological richness have long been cherished by residents of Carroll County and nearby communities. Named for Chief William McIntosh of the Muskogee Creek Nation, these lands hold cultural significance for Carroll County residents, descendants of Chief McIntosh, and the Muskogee (Creek) Tribe.
We are excited to share that—through multiple land acquisitions— TPL has nearly tripled the size of McIntosh Reserve into 1,422 acres. Our acquisitions will create an additional entrance to the park off Georgia Highway 5, offering visitors a more convenient, more visible, better maintained gateway than the existing entrance off a residential road.
Preserving and enlarging McIntosh Reserve means creating more opportunities for physical activity that improves our mental and physical health and cultural enrichment that broadens our horizons. From invigorating river rafting excursions (the reserve is the final destination of the 48-mile Chattahoochee Camp + Paddle Trail, open in fall 2024) to quiet nature walks to multi-generational family reunions, the expansion and guaranteed protection of this magical area enriches the lives of residents in surrounding communities in so many ways.
Join us to connect residents and build community across the Atlanta region through a reimagined Chattahoochee River. Make your annual gift for the Chattahoochee RiverLands.
Additionally, this acquisition strengthens our ability to safeguard the diverse wildlife found in the region, including rare, highpriority plant and animal species. Through our conservation and environmental remediation efforts, we can ensure that future generations have the privilege of witnessing the beauty and resilience of our local wildlife.
PHOTO BY TPL STAFF
THANK YOU
for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Georgia and beyond.
GEORGIA ADVISORY BOARD
Virginia Almand , Community Volunteer
Hunter Amos , NEWMARK
Patricia T. Barmeyer, Community Volunteer
Anna S. Callaway, Keller Knapp Realty
Tres Carpenter, ZWJ Investment Counsel
Jason Carter, Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore
Jackie Cushman , Community Volunteer
Jocelyn Dorsey, Community Volunteer
Natalie Giurato, Cox Enterprises
Chris Graham , Koch Industries
John Hardman , WildArk, Woodleaf Partners
Helen Hart , Norfolk Southern Company
Paula Hennessy, Community Volunteer
Cecilia Houston-Torrence , Community Volunteer
Bob Kinney, Community Volunteer
Alison Lathrop, Delta Air Lines
Trey Loughran , Purchasing Power
James H. Morgens , Morgens Property & Investment Co.
Alan S. Neely, Community Volunteer
Carlos Pagoaga , The Coca-Cola Company
Kevin Pearson , Georgia Power Company
Amy Phuong , Atlanta Hawks
Michele Reale , The Shopping Center Group
Join us
Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you. tpl.org/donate/ga
Suzanne Sackleh , Community Volunteer
Christopher Glenn Sawyer, Community Volunteer
Jeff Seavey, Community Volunteer
Sally Seeds , Community Volunteer
Markham Smith , Smith Dalia Architects
Rian Smith , The Integral Group
Emily J. Sweitzer, Rangewater Real Estate
Alex D. Watts , Merrill Lynch
Shelli Willis , Board Chair, Troutman Pepper
Eric W. Wilson , CBRE
Chad Wright , GDP Holdings
George Dusenbury VP for the Southeast and Georgia State Director george.dusenbury@tpl.org
Nicole Blackshear
Southeast Region Director of Philanthropy nicole.blackshear@tpl.org
600 West Peachtree Street, NW Suite 1840 Atlanta, GA 30308