Glenwood Community Center

On Wednesday one of our partners, Glenwood Community Center, experienced a terrible tragedy. In their parking lot at 5:20 in the afternoon, a shooting took place. A beautiful young woman, A'Tayia Nichols, lost her life and two others were wounded. Our deepest condolences go out to everyone affected by this incident, especially Ms. Nichols's family and friends.

We are close to Center Manager TD Dishmon and have held multiple events at Glenwood. In fact, we've been in the process of planning our Third Annual Bikes & Badges there on Thursday, June 23 from 4-6pm. TD wants the event to go on as planned in order for it to be a healing opportunity for the neighborhood. Our Columbus Division of Police friends are reaching out to community partners to have trauma resources available for those that want information.

Yesterday, four of our board members spent time at Glenwood, doing what we could to help. Zone 3 Safe Streets came and did two Books & Badges readings with the children in the summer programs, and everyone had a lot of fun. There was arm wrestling, handcuffing demonstrations, lots of stickers, and lots of questions.

One boy quietly asked Sergeant Joel Westbrook why kids get shot. They had a conversation about that, and while that is a very sad question, we're glad the child felt safe enough to ask that very important question and talk about it.

We were also able to take delicious Minelli's Pizza for the children, staff, and officers who were there. We'd like to thank them for getting all those pizzas ready so quickly and for offering us a discount (without us asking!). Everyone really loved the treat. Minelli's, you are a gem and we appreciate partnering with you.

Everyone can make a difference. Some of you made a difference by donating to us so that we could pay for those books and pizzas, some of you donated bikes that will be given out next week, and maybe some of you will come out to our Bikes & Badges event. The bikes are allocated to children that are registered in Columbus Recreation and Parks Department programs, but the games, resources, and fun are open to all. We hope to see you there as this neighborhood comes together after this very tragic event.