This story was originally published by The Current GA.
Until recently many children living near 4th Street in the Arco neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia had to navigate a busy four-lane road without crosswalks to play their favorite sport: basketball.
That’s because a closer and safer court had been neglected for years, and its weed-choked concrete made games impossible.
That changed when some of the 200 volunteers who signed up for a community workday renovated the basketball courts at New Glory Christian Center. The work was one of several public service projects organized by A Better Glynn, Forward Brunswick and United Way of Coastal Georgia on their inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. day of service.
During the day of volunteer service, Brunswick residents also addressed maintenance problems at 60 Brunswick Housing Authority units that are vacant because of lack of repairs. They also put together 150 kits with pre-kindergarten-level books, fuzzy socks and blankets, and notes of encouragement for children experiencing homelessness or foster care.
Credit: Jay Sellers
Credit: Jay Sellers
But as important to helping low-income families in Brunswick, a city where a third of residents live in poverty, was how to address unequal access to parks and recreation near the downtown subsidized housing projects.
Fixing New Glory’s courts so that children in Arco wouldn’t have to cross busy Newcastle Street to get to Selden Park provides a new outlet to keep children out of trouble, according to ABG co-founder Shemeka Frazier Sorrells.
“We know that when we give people things to do, that improves the quality of their lives, improves their well being, makes them happier and makes them less likely to engage in activities that will harm them and their community,” Sorrells said.
Filling a need
In the mid-morning of a frigid Saturday at New Glory Christian Center, dozens of volunteers grabbed trash bags, put on gloves and got to work.
They used shovels to dig out weeds in the uneven concrete, pulled out thorny vines from the fences and scooped up dirt and trash that had accumulated. Later, the concrete was power-washed and the rusty basketball hoop posts uprooted — soon to be replaced with brand new goals and posts.
Credit: Jay Sellers
Credit: Jay Sellers
Rev. Sharon Hall Green and her husband, Rev. Raymond Green, are pastors of New Glory Christian Center and arrived after Sharon’s father, the founding minister, died in 2020.
Since they started preaching in 2021, the pastors said they noticed there weren’t enough activities for kids to do in their neighborhood. The renovation of the church’s basketball courts is a way to fill that need, Raymond said.
“This is actually to draw them. An act of love, of kindness, just to show them that somebody cares enough to open up some type of establishment for them to have something to do,” he said. According to the pastors, the church is also seeking donations for a playground to put on their ample green space.
A comfort to struggling families
Inside the interior of the New Glory Christian Center, other volunteers put together the so-called “resilience kits.”
Janelle Harvey, director of community impact with United Way of Coastal Georgia, oversaw the assembly of the kits, which she said will give comfort to struggling families. One example of a family who would benefit from them came to mind for her: a Brunswick grandmother recently evicted from her apartment and now living in a car with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchild.
Credit: Jake Shore
Credit: Jake Shore
Because Glynn County has no family shelter — only separate women’s, men’s and children’s shelters — the family is confined to the car. Homelessness in Brunswick has bloomed amid political infighting, fears of public safety and a dearth of resources.
For the family Harvey mentioned, the stress and uncertainty has compounded.
“They’ve been staying in a motel when they could afford it. But when they can’t, they’re in their car. And then you’re just stuck there all day long,” Harvey said.
Of the kits, Harvey said: “Having something soft and warm, especially when it’s cold at night, something that just provides you with that sense of comfort. It sounds so simple to us, but it can mean a lot.”
Credit: The Current GA
Credit: The Current GA
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