Community comes alive for event

ALBANY — Call it a vibe. A vibration that stirs people in just the right way sailed through the hundreds attending a community festival on Albany’s south side Saturday.

“This is what it feels like to come together as a community,” said J.T. Bowers as he carried his 18-month-old daughter Ja’Miyla on his shoulders. “We are here to get to know each other and know that we have a shoulder to lean on when we need it.”

The event was sponsored by the Community Builders group, but representatives from churches, the Stop the Violence Movement and other civic groups all contributed.

“This is all about people willing to do something to make a difference in the community,” said Donald Hart, founder of Community Builders. “This brings people together to fight crime, build the community and offer alternatives to gangs to youth.”

At monthly meetings of the Albany Police Department Gang Task Force, reasons for young people joining gangs have been spelled out. Youths want love, respect and a sense of belonging they do not seem to get in their homes.

One grassroots community organizer, Willie Ross, said that paths to love, respect and the sense of belonging must start within the community.

“We have to get the local churches to reach out in their neighborhoods,” Ross said. “We need more of these community-building activities across the city.”

Passing out fliers at the event, members of Aikido Schools of SOWEGA offered another way for youths to find a path to respect and belonging.

“It is not where you are in life. It is the condition of your mind,” said Aaron Muhammad, a second-degree balck belt in Aikido. “Self-improvement is the basis for community development.”

The event included thousands of free hot dogs and hamburgers, multiple inflatable bouncy houses for children and every kind of music from contemporary gospel to dance music played by DJ Pete Johnson of Power 105.5.

People at the event from young ones with baseball caps askew to grandmothers in their bonnets met each other, laughed and began to come together as a community.

The idea seemed to be catching on, Ross said. As a community organizer he said he felt such community events would be spreading throughout the city.

A minister from the north side agreed and said his church’s neighborhood would host the next event.

“Our neighborhood is drug-infested and full of crime,” said the Rev. Kendrick Barlow Sr., of the New Testament Baptist Church, at Madison Street and Residence Avenue. “We need to get the people together so that we can fight back.”