unite Brundidge community

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

Violence is always a terrible thing, but it seems when young people are involved it is all the more terrible.

You can ask yourself over and over again what can help today’s young people and end the level of crime and unrest in their ranks or you can get out there and try to make something positive happen like Brundidge Detective Michael Foster.

Foster and the Brundidge Police Department will be putting on a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at Galloway Park in Brundidge this Saturday. The tournament could be seen as a move by Foster in defiance of the crime that has claimed the once peaceful part of the community.

The park has been closed down in response to some shootings that have occurred, but this is the BPD’s shot at bringing a more positive feeling back to the area.

Personally I know all about the importance of a place like Galloway. When I was growing up, much like Foster had with the Brundidge park, I had my own right across from my grandmothers.

There weren’t many waking moments in my youth, when I was at my grandparents’ house, that I didn’t spend on the park grounds playing and swimming. It’s one of those places that held the identity to what I was as a child.

Summer wasn’t summer without the park and my childhood would have never been totally whole without it as I look back.

Now, that park is gone aside for a couple of rusty swings and a torn up slide. They tore it down and filled in the swimming pool because of the crime and bad element that started hanging around the park.

I had a mild flashback when Detective Foster took me out to Galloway. We walked a little ways and you could tell by the big grin on his face that the small park held some treasured memories in the back of his mind just as I had felt when I looked back at my own park.

Those days are gone, but never forgotten. The only way you can make room for more memories like mine and Mr. Foster’s is by learning how precious a community can be and how important it is to find a place for the children to feel safe and enjoy life.

Sporting events have always had that power to unite and the 3-on-3 tournament could prove just the thing. Come out and support this attempt to gain back some of a great communities’ dignity.

For more information call: 735-2366.