Corri Bailey is not calling Saturday’s “Take Back Our Park” event a rally around the flag, but she is suggesting that everyone wear red, white and blue to show solidarity in the efforts to make Galloway Park in Brundidge a safe place for children to play.

“Take Back Our Park” will be from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Galloway Park and will include games, contests and a hotdog lunch and watermelons. A highlight of the event will be a homerun derby. Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

“What this event will hopefully do is show those people that are abusing the park and keeping others from enjoying it that we are not going to stand back and let them take Galloway Park from the kids,” Bailey said. “Our children need a place where they can go to play and feel safe. The way the park is now, we can’t let our children go there to play. It has been taken over by people that are drinking alcohol, doing drugs and selling drugs.”

Bailey said not only is the park being taken away from the children, a cloud has been cast over the neighborhood. “People who live around the park are uneasy because when people are drinking and doing drugs, you never know what might happen,” she said.

Bailey envisions Saturday’s event as one straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

“We want children to come and play games, eat ice cream and watermelon and enjoy being together,” Bailey said. “I don’t think it’s asking too much for a community to have a place like that.”

Bailey addressed the Brundidge City Council at a June meeting and expressed concern about activities at Galloway Park.

“Things are some better and, maybe that’s because there has been activity at the park while we are getting ready for ‘Take Back Our Park,” she said. “We can’t sit back and let things like this happen. I’ve been told that Galloway Park has been a hangout for years and nothing is going to change. But I don’t believe it. I think the park can be a safe place for people of all ages. I invite all of those who believe that, too, or just want to believe it, to come out Saturday with the attitude that we can make a difference.”

The Brundidge City Council voted Tuesday in support of creating a new $500,000 park, which will include a splash pad and recreational trail.

“That park is in the same neighborhood,” Bailey said. “If we keep letting Galloway Park be a beer garden and worse, that same thing could happen at the new park on the other side of Galloway Road. We’ve got to ‘Take Back Our Park’ and then make sure that every park and every place in Brundidge is safe for children, for all of us.”