Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office presents Unity in the Community cookout

ALBANY — The 6th annual Unity in the Community Cookout came off without a hitch on Saturday, with hundreds arriving at Robert Cross Park to enjoy the great weather, free food, music and recreation. In addition, attendees got a chance to meet with law enforcement personnel in a “dressed down” atmosphere.

“This is an awesome crowd today,” said Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul, who initiated the event in his second year in office. “We’ve fed about 600 people already and we have some more to feed. Besides community members we have people from Dougherty County EMS, the fire department and the Georgia State Patrol.”

Sproul said the idea behind the event is to build a better bond between law enforcement and the community at-large. It began as a simple affair at Carver Park by a few people “who were able to get their hands on some extra food,” Sproul said last week, and has since rotated to various parks abound the city, growing larger year by year.

For Saturday’s occasion, cooking volunteers began at 4 a.m., cleaning 750 chicken quarters at the kitchen of the Dougherty County jail. The birds were served in harmony with some 700 hot dogs, 200 hamburgers and eight huge trays of beans. Last but not least came 650 bags of crisp potato chips.

According to Sproul, while the shindig relied on help from many volunteers, the ramrods of the day were Col. Sabrina Lewis and Maj. Dan Haggerty with the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’ve said this and it’s true, that the Sheriff’s Office is the office of the people, and we can’t do our jobs effectively without knowing which areas need to be tackled the most,” Sproul said, adding that on Saturday he’d heard a few complaints on certain issues that he intends to later bring before his command staff for consideration.

The community get-together also served to put a human face on the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement, Sproul said, with the greatest importance placed on area youth.

“With the officer assaults and shootings around the country, It’s important to let the youth here know that we really do care about them, and we hope and pray that those isolated incidents don’t come over into Dougherty County,” Sproul said. “I think with the work of the Sheriff’s Office, the police departments and others in the community, we do a very effective job in preventing that from happening.”

Some visitors to the barbecue went fishing at the park lake, while kids played in “bouncy houses” and on swings, or rode horses brought by Dougherty County Commissioner Harry James. Others chose to check out casual presentations of the HEAT cruiser courtesy of the Dougherty County Police Department, the ambulance from Dougherty County EMS, or the bright red Fire Truck from the Albany Fire Department.

And just to make the day a little bit sweeter, five lucky kids won brand new bikes. The first 100 each received a $25 gift certificate from Hibbett Sports in Albany.