NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In a week, a ribbon cutting will be held for a new playground in the Andrew Jackson Courts area. Some neighbors and friends are already at work helping it happen.
Mom Dorothea Parker sat with her 10-year-old son, Lamonte. The two dipped brushes in paint and decorated the boards in front of them. They were surrounded by other parents and children.
"You know anyone here, Lamonte?" I asked.
He pointed to a girl a few feet away. She waved, taking a pause from painting a blue and red spider like the one that bit Spider-Man.
"My theme is Spider-Man," she said, looking up from the board she was painting. "With the bird [I'm painting], I'm going to do Spider-Woman."
The idea was for everyone to add some little bursts of color to the boards.
"Like a rainbow!" Parker smiled.
Parker grew up in Andrew Jackson Courts, part of Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. She raised her first son there too. She's moved somewhere else now, but Lamonte comes to the Boys and Girls Club in the neighborhood.
"Am I doing a good job?" Parker asked her son between brush strokes on the board.
"Yep! Well, you only have two things right now, though."
"I know! I'm taking my time!" Parker laughed, carefully painting a spider and a worm.
Parker's long wanted a better playground for the area. That's about to happen. Through MDHA, the Nashville Predators Foundation, and the KABOOM! non-profit organization, a new playground is being built next to the Boys and Girls Club in a few days. A ribbon cutting will be held November 14.
"I think I'm going to make my spider red!" Parker smiled.
"A black widow is black with red spots, I think," her son said, looking over.
Parker returned to help neighbors paint parts of the little free library boxes that will be around the new playground.
"I'm always willing to come back and help the community," Parker said. "I just love helping the kids!"
"You can always come back to look cause it'll be here for a while," Parker told her son, the two finishing up their work. "When you get older, you can come back and say, 'I did this part, my momma did this part.'"
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
This is a story I immediately went home and showed my boys - young athletes with big dreams. The Vanderbilt football team's success has stolen the spotlight - what I love about Steve Layman's story is he reveals the individual hardships it took to get there. As Clark Lea says, "we all have scuff marks." This team proves perseverance pays off!
- Carrie Sharp
