Community Day sponsored by nonprofit group at H.V. Brown
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on July 29, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Mariana Smalls, 7, smiles with excitement as she goes down a bouncy slide at H.V. Brown park at a community day event hosted by "Ambitious Youth" on Sunday.
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Nasaia Colon, 8, left, and Tamiya Boone, 7, compete for first place in a "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" dance contest at H.V. Brown Park on Sunday.
It was time for a change.
Reggie White, Jermaine Buckram and De'Rontae Lee saw what was happening to youth in the community, and it wasn't pretty.
Youths are getting caught up in violence, shootings are happening all the time and there is nothing else for the youth of Goldsboro to do.
So the three men decided to make a change.
They began a new non-profit in October 2014, dedicated to keeping youths out of violent and criminal lifestyles.
On Sunday, the group held its first ever event -- a community day in H.V. Brown Park.
Hundreds of community members came out to the four hour long event from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
"We want to steer kids in the right direction, away from violence," Buckram said. "We're trying to do that through events like these. It won't be a once a year thing. Right now we're working on getting a back to school drive together, but it's expensive to do it out of pocket. So if we can't get a back to school event together, then we'll do one around Halloween and the holiday season."
White, Buckram and Lee each have children of their own -- one, one and two, with one on the way, respectively -- which only bolstered their motivation to help youths in the community.
All three men are natives Goldsboro, and came back home after attending college at various places.
"We want to give them something to look forward to, and give them an inspiration," Buckram said. "We want to be positive role models in the life of the kids. There are a lot of shootings here, and a lot of violence, and not enough positive things going on for kids in the community. There's a very huge need for things like this in the community, but they have to be consistent."
There was free food, bounce houses, relay races, a bubble station and a DJ providing music and dance contests.
Two local business owners even came out to offer their services.
Rick Williams of Razor Cuts barber shop deeply discounted his services and provided $1 haircuts for the duration of the event.
Plenty of people who attended the event, including Steve Smith and his son, Nyciere, took advantage of Williams' offer.
"They called me and told me what they were doing and asked me to do this, and I said, 'Yeah, I'll do that for the kids," Williams said.
Jamillah Jackson of The Wire Scarf, a company that sells women's fashion accessories that Ms. Jackson makes by hand, was passing out free hair bows to each young girl at the event.
"You're never too small of a business to give back to the community you're in," she said.
Those who attended the event on Sunday afternoon were happy their children had something to do on a day they might not usually have anything to keep them busy.
Shauntia Ezzell has three children, and brought them all.
"I saw it on Facebook and wanted to come out so my kids could enjoy it," Ms. Ezzell said. "It's very nice that they're doing this because, you know, they don't have to do something like this for the community."
Anthony Langston, who is part of the non-profit, said they were all trying to give back and better the community they come from.
"You know, some of us out here had a bit of a rough or sketchy past, and we're trying to make sure that the kids in the community now had it better than we did," Langston said.