PINE BLUFF, Ark. — On Sunday afternoon, family, friends, and people of similar faith all gathered at the Saint Hurricane Missionary Baptist Church for a ribbon cutting of the new Hurricane Fitness Park in Pine Bluff.
"We got a walking track, we've got tic tac toe and golf and hopscotch and putt-putt stations. and we were introducing disk golf to our community; then we got volleyball and cornhole and horseshoes and soccer and you name it," Senior Pastor Derick Easter described.
Who knew working out could be this much fun? Well, it turns out Senior Pastor Derick Easter did.
He envisioned the new fitness park as a place that would strengthen the members of the Pine Bluff community not just physically but also spiritually as well.
"To offer a safe place for people to come to work out, enjoy the outdoors, to a place to show goodwill and love and to be a light in our community," Easter said.
Easter said he knows the gun violence in Pine Bluff is no secret, so this park also offers another resource for youth and adults to have a place to congregate safely.
"We wanted to be very intentional about making a strategic investment in our community, realizing that if change is going to come, we have to do it and so we wanted to build something that's going to give people a safe space for them to come and fellowship and grow and communicate and improve our physical fitness," he described.
Lakrisha Goins who attends St. Hurricane Missionary Baptist church, expressed how she loves that the park is neighborhood-friendly and easily accessible.
"It's a lot of kids over here in this community and you know they can just be right here instead of the parents having to travel across town to you know, make sure they enjoy activities they can just be right here and have fun," Goins added.
Easter explained that the park took about two years to finish and cost approximately $250,000 but every dime spent was worth it when you can see the excitement on everyone's faces.
"It's just exciting I want everybody to come out and witness it for themselves and see how good it is," Goins said.
Hurricane Fitness Park will open Monday through Saturday from 6:00 a.m. until dark and on Sunday it will be open right after the St. Hurricane Missionary Baptist church morning service.
Easter explained that those who want to participate in body-weight outdoor fitness should be aged 13 and up.