Every year for her birthday, 7-year-old Blakeley Robbins and her family go camping at her favorite place in the world, Blakeley State Park.

But this year, when Blakeley, her parents and her brothers woke up on April 2 in the park, they wondered if their 2,000-acre getaway would always be there for them to enjoy.

Starting in 2011, funding for Blakeley State Park, along with several other state parks like it, was eliminated from Alabama's general fund budget, said park director Jo Ann Flirt. According to Flirt, the park needs about $400,000 per year to operate at its fullest capacity, and most years before the budget cuts, it received about $175,000 per year from the state. Other funding comes from park admissions and a local lease tax, which provides the park with about $100,000 per year for capital expansion, according to Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Bay Minette.

“Realistically, we are staggering from month to month and year to year, and it cannot continue,” Flirt said. “I could not if my life depended on it tell you how it is we have stayed open. It has taken its toll on our equipment. We have machinery and equipment that haven't had repairs in five years, and it can't realistically continue. I personally do not like to hear people cry wolf, and I don't like to complain and whine, but the financial facts are that we can't continue like this.”

That's why 7-year-old Blakeley decided to donate her birthday money to the park.

Blakeley's park

Blakeley had a birthday party a couple of weeks before her April 2 birthday, and on the invitations, she requested her guests bring donations for Blakeley State Park instead of gifts. She raised $100, and her brother Gerrit donated $2 to the cause, bringing the total donation to $102.

“I like this park so much, and I didn't want it to close down,” Blakeley said. “I like to pretend I'm a hunter and I'm hiking. And sometimes I actually do hike. I like being outside even more than watching TV.”

Blakeley shares a name with the park, and it's no coincidence — her mother Tracy, who grew up in Pascagoula, Miss., spent many weekends at the park during her own childhood.

“When I found out I was having a girl, I knew immediately I was going to name her Blakeley,” Tracy said. “I was probably about Blakeley's age when my dad had me for the weekend and he saw an article in the paper about the first ever reenactment that was going to happen (at Blakeley). That's when he fell in love with reenacting, and after that, we would go to reenactments almost every weekend. Weekends we didn't have a reenactment, we would just go to Blakeley to camp out there, and it was a tradition that we always did together. It was just he and I, and it became one of my biggest childhood memories.”

Terry Lamar Stuckey, Tracy's father, continued to reenact and camp at Blakeley throughout his life, and when he died in May of 2009, his memorial service was held at the Civil War Redoubt 4 at Blakeley.

“Because my dads ashes are buried there, I think my kids feel like he's around the battlefield,” Tracy said. “And for Blakeley, she really does feel like it's her park. Just the thought of them closing it, selling it or subdividing it into a neighborhood is very concerning to myself and to my kids.”

The park's future

Flirt, the park director, said the park has cut back drastically on personnel, equipment purchase and repairs and operations costs over the past few years. She even canceled the park's annual reenactment this year because she said the park didn't have enough money to cover the cost of the event.

The park is currently able to pay its six staff members — two people in administration and four rangers — but it hasn't been able to repair equipment or make upgrades in years.

“With the economy like it is, everybody's in a pinch, and the general fund in part is squeezed because of Medicaid,” McMillan said. “And one of the first things to go is history and the arts, unfortunately.”

McMillan said although he wishes parks like Blakeley could get funds from the state for 2014, it's not likely. He said the park will have to innovate to fund itself during this difficult time in the state's economy.

“We've just been trying to save it and use Band-Aids to keep it alive,” he said. “One of the things we've been doing is trying to make them self-sustaining economically. Ultimately, thats what we need to do, and then we won't have to worry about budget issues. If it was not for the local legislation (lease tax), it probably would be closed, which would be a tremendous loss not only for tourism and visitors, but for the whole state.”

Flirt said she is open to any fundraising ideas. The park is preparing to sell souvenirs in an effort to raise money. Her last resort is to raise entrance fees or prices for boat tours, camping and other activities.

“We really hate to do that,” she said. “We believe very strongly in having state services offered to our citizens and our visitors and having as modest fees as we can.”

Get involved

The best thing Baldwin County residents can do to help Blakeley right now is to visit the park and consider purchasing a Friends of Blakeley membership, which covers entry fees for a year.

Flirt said contacting members of the legislature and the governor's office to show support for the park is also appreciated — getting money from the state again would be the ideal solution, she said.

“We need a steady stream of appropriations from the state of Alabama, which we used to have and are not now getting,” she said.

Closing the park would be a devastating event for Baldwin County residents, Flirt said.

“This park is important,” she said. “We live in a large county, and there's a lot of green here, but it is increasingly important that people have a public park. When I was growing up, you could just wander around the woods and nobody cared, but now property owners can't allow trespassing because of the liability. So pretty soon anyone who wants to get out into nature, they'll have to go to a public park. And you can't just put aside five acres and say this is a park and have this kind of wildlife. It just takes more room than that.”

By the numbers 

Expenses

• $400,000: Money needed for payroll, equipment repair, park maintenance

Income

$100,000: Yearly funding from local lease tax; earmarked for capital expansion; exception allows use for operations until 2015

$50,000: One-year grant from Alabama Historical Commission for fiscal year 2013

The issue

• $175,000: Average yearly funding Blakeley received from the general fund budget before 2011
• $0: Current funding Blakeley receives from general fund budget
• $250,000: Average yearly amount Blakeley State Park must raise through admissions, camping special events and donations

What to do at Blakeley

• Camping
• Explore 2,000 acres
• Nature trails
• Bike and horse paths
• Wildlife
• Prehistoric Indian mounds
• Civil War battlefield
• Delta Explorer boat tours
• Historic town of Blakeley

For more information about entrance fees, visit www.blakeleypark.com or contact park director Jo Ann Flirt at 251-626-0798.