Leadership Macon: 2014 Project
One of the more challenging and rewarding projects I’ve been a part of this year is participating in Leadership Macon. For those of you not familiar with this organization, it’s a tremendous honor to be in one of these classes. You have to be nominated and then pass an interview process. Then, you go on a retreat and classes once a month on topics such as poverty, education, and Race relations.
Before you roll your eyes and say sarcastically, “sounds like fun”, I actually have had a lot of fun. The people in my class are amazing, I’ve gotten to make new friends who I honestly don’t know how I lived without them in my lives before, and I’ve become better friends with people I already knew. And… well yes, there have been moments of frustration. It’s bound to happen when you get a group of young leaders together.
Each class comes up with a project, something to really impact and make our community better. We choose to have a few committees of people and present projects to one another. I’ll be honest- my project didn’t get chosen. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that, I honestly never thought about just how important it is for kids to have playgrounds at school. Which is why I’m proud to say our project is to build a playground and garden at Ingram-Pye Elementary School.
Perhaps I took it for granted since I never had to not have one as a child, perhaps it didn’t seem ” BIG” enough of a project- but my opinions have changed. Creativity is something that stays with children and can help them throughout their lives. I’m not citing some kind of study, I’m talking about some damn common sense stuff. Playing on the playground helps kids get creative. It allows them to interact with their peers outside of just the classroom. It also helps fight childhood obesity which is an epidemic in this country.
Then also- we’ve got the garden, which will also be open to the neighborhood. Allowing people to grow their own vegetables and fruits not only helps them save money, but it allows people to eat better. Have you ever heard of a food desert? A food desert is when people don’t have easy access to grocery stores without reliable transportation. This will help with that as well.
If you think a playground isn’t a big deal, then go and talk to these kids. Go and talk to the kids at MY kids school, who were raising money for one and then it was gone with the actions of one person who stole their $30,000 from the PTO fund. Talk to any child and look them in the eyes and tell them a playground isn’t important. When you look in those eyes, and you see these kids who are getting a playground when they haven’t had one, all doubt will be gone.
This is all made possible with the donations and grants of some amazing corporate donors, but we still need your help. Even if all you can give is one dollar, it’s one more dollar than we’ve got now.
Please consider clicking this link here, it will take you to the United Way online donation form- just make sure you specify this is for the Leadership Macon 2014 class project.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
