Forum hears youth spearheading TMCN project

An ambitious group of three seniors at Breckenridge High School has taken on a new project at the Breckenridge Park through the Texas Midwest Community Network. The three youth include Caroline Turner, Kayla Wood and Thomas Hamilton.

The three youth did a program for the Woman’s Forum explaining the project in detail. A budget of $8,500 was set to renovate the bathrooms and replace the picnic tables and restore the backstop and wire fencing behind the ballfields, which served both baseball and softball players. After careful consideration, it was determined that the barbecue pits needed replacing and also the playground equipment to make sure it was all safe for the younger set of youth to play safely.

The ambitious group enlisted the aid of a youth group from First Baptist to help tear out the old fencing for the combined baseball/softball field.

The students have raised $2,500 so far and needs some more help from the community of Breckenridge to get more done on the project.

When a project is brought to the attention of a group, such as the three youths before the TMCN project, they had to come up with a budget based on their view of the project and what they could do to accomplish the said project. Next, they go into the community of Breckenridge and raise money. Several businesses got onboard to donate money or materials, but many more can now be notified that they need to pick up the slack and help with this project.

The three youth have been in the forefront of the project from day one and helped physically pull up wire, pipe, weeds and rocks.

Cavalry Resources and Construction Company, with Coby Walker as owner, helped by donating materials and time to roof the bathrooms at the park. It also helps to have a plumber handy such as Bryan Wood (Kayla Wood’s dad) and his Integrity Plumbing, who donated time and materials to renovate the restrooms at the park.

Darcy Turner and Turner Seed have donated $1,000 to the project and labor to pull up the old fencing around the backstop. Turner knows a bit about ballparks as he helped with his children on both fields as they all played for BHS.

The main emphasis for the three youth was to have a safe playground for the younger children away from the busy traffic on Walker St. The Southside Park, now known as Breckenridge Park, was already an existing location but was very rundown and needed a lot of TLC and more than just a face-lift, it required almost a complete renovation. Work has continued throughout the summer and fall months and will begin again during the spring with graduation just around the corner.

Businesses or individuals who want to help move this project along can reach the three youth through the facebook page at: Breckenridge TMCN.

The youth can also be contacted at BHS and through their own facebook presence and through their parents Darcy and Jacque Turner and Shonda and Bryan Wood at Integrity Plumbing.