What are you good at?
Everyone has a talent, and that’s the theme for the third annual Baptist Town Community Day, which will be held Saturday at the park located on the intersection of Avenue A and Walker Street.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will start at 11 a.m. and go on until the evening.
Emily Roush Elliott, project manager for the ongoing Baptist Town Project, said, “It’s a powerful thing to ask someone ‘What are you good at?’ rather than ‘Are you good at something?’”
The theme is Elliott’s brainchild, which she created while competing to obtain funding from the Fetzer Love and Forgiveness Grant to expand Baptist Town’s Community Day.
“Talking to community members, I realized what we need to love the most and value the most is ourselves, and we’ll have positive ramifications in our lives, our families’ lives and our neighborhood,” said Elliott. “I thought about how do we all talk about valuing ourselves all across the United States. Any time someone wants to give a compliment, they usually say, ‘I think you are good at’ whatever it is. We just took those two words ‘good at.’ The community day this year is Good At Community Day.”
After receiving the grant, Elliott, residents and community leaders began meeting to start preparations for what is considered the biggest event Baptist Town has hosted.
“We are encouraging everyone in the Greenwood area to come out and celebrate Baptist Town,” said Carl Winters, longtime Baptist Town resident and a coordinator of the event.
On arrival, attendees will write what they are good at on a 4-by-8-foot blackboard, which Elliott will seal after the event and plans to eventually put in the lobby of a community center in Baptist Town.
The festival will have food, inflatables and games for adults and kids, T-shirts, music and other fun community day essentials. But it will also showcase local talent and provide ways for residents to become even better — and even profitable — at their “good at.”
Elliott — along with Angela Curry, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation — bought gift certificates from talented community members of Baptist Town for items such as car detailing, nail art, dance lessons, lawn mowing and baked goods. The gift certificates are the door prizes that will be available at each booth. Drawings for the door prizes will be held throughout the day, starting at noon.
“Angela and I are interested in looping back with the people we purchased gift certificates from to see if they want to take small business classes or if they’re interested in becoming an entrepreneur, and what they can use from the economic development foundation to reach that goal,” Elliott sid.
There will be booths for Leflore County Health Center and WIN Job Center, and the Harvard students with the Community Development Project will have a scholarship registry booth for local students.
“Everyone has the option to come out, eat lunch and enjoy the day, or they can also show what they’re good at or find a way to become good at or better at something,” said Elliott.
Winters, Mary Saaka and her son, Dash Brown, and other members of the Baptist Town community have been instrumental in the planning process.
Brown will also be the event’s videographer, which is something he is good at.
Winters said City Council members, the Board of Supervisors, local businesses like Greenwood Market Place and Big Star and Bill Crump of Viking Range Corp. have all shown support for this year’s Community Good At Day.
The event will also feature lunch prepared by volunteers in the community, DJ King Miller, face painting, art activities with an art therapist, inflatables, a cake walk and bingo.
The community day will give Baptist Town an opportunity to show off a new addition to its park — a playground, which will be constructed on Wednesday with the help of about 40 volunteers.
“This community day gives us, the residents of Baptist Town, a sense of ‘we can do it,’” said Winters. “In past years, people have looked down us, but Baptist Town is becoming a place we can be proud of.”
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
