GARDNER, Kan. — The family of beloved Gardner Edgerton High School Spanish teacher Ashley Gorney is raising money to make one of her dreams come true, even if she’ll never be able to enjoy it.
Cancer took Gorney’s life earlier this year after a seven-year battle.
“For her, it was just maintaining that positive attitude and knowing there are so many awesome things to live for,” said widower Jerad Gorney.
During visits to Winwood Park with their two children, Ashley would always bring up the need for an outdoor public basketball court. Currently, Gardner only has one such court at Veterans Park.
“It’d come up all the time,” Jerad said.
Ashley played basketball growing up in Great Bend, Kansas, and continued at college. She coached several sports at GEHS.
This month, Jerad, along with Ashley’s father Bob Olivier, created the Ashley Gorney Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit to help with fundraising to make the basketball court a reality.
Jerad says each estimate he gets for constructing the court is higher than the last. Concrete is in high demand, driving up the price.
While projections expect the total to exceed $80,000, a series of small fundraisers, and a Go Fund Me website, have raised just under $40,000.
“I had an idea [of the cost], but I didn’t realize it would be so astronomical,” Olivier said.
Both men remain undeterred, channeling Ashley’s never-give-up energy. They can visualize the ribbon cutting for the Ashley Olivier Gorney Memorial Court.
“It’s a vision of grandeur,” her father said. “I just see the clouds parting and a beam of sun coming down and just lighting it up.”
Jerad hopes the new nonprofit opens doors with grant funding.
“Instead of it being a day that we’re all sad, it can be a day where we look to the future and the good things that can come," Jerad said.
He is still collecting donations for the project with a Go Fund Me page online.
