- Valdosta's Mildred Hunter Community Center's gym has new floors and new lights.
- The project has been almost 10 years in the making.
- Watch the video to hear from neighbors about how this helps area children.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Children around the Southside of Valdosta now have a much nicer gym to play in at the Mildred Hunter Community Center.
I'm Malia Thomas, your neighborhood reporter in Valdosta, and I'm speaking with neighbors about how this will help under served kids in the area.
"I work with at-risk kids. Been doing that probably 30 years."
Andre Newson has been working with kids at the Mildred Hunter Community Center for over 22 years.
He even brought his own children here while they were growing up.
He tells me his favorite memory of them here was...
"...the Dancing Dolls. They were a part of the program in their ballet outfits. It was the most fun time for me to see them."
Seeing children have a safe space to reach their potential is why updating the gym has been so important to him.
"It's giving that child that normally won't have that resource... it's an outlet for these kids that can't don't have the money to pay to go to camp."
Andre and Parks and Rec finally got their wish.
The city set aside $245,000 of federal American Rescue Plan money for the project.
That money pays for gym new floors and new lights.
I found research published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review last year.
It says community centers with programs like Mildred Hunter help kids learn better and are a solution to disparities in income and education.
"We're so excited."
George Page is executive director of VLPRA.
He agrees with that research and says he's happy for this project to come to fruition.
"This has been a vision for many years...our kids are playing on the best, and that's what we want for our kids in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community."
The study I found also said community engagement programs help children broaden their horizons beyond their neighborhood... something Andre hopes to continue doing.
"It's just various programs that we do here that I love doing and I like taking the kids traveling introducing things that never had."
Mildred Hunter's new and improved gym is now ready for the public to use. In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
