Working to change the image of Pine Bluff in a positive way brought a group of young people together Saturday for a coat and blanket drive conducted by the King Team.
“There’s a lot of negativity about Pine Bluff and Arkansas, especially from people up north,” said Darion Houston, 15. “”They think we’re all hobos and don’t wear shoes but there are a lot of scholars and smart people from Arkansas.”
A member of the King Team for two years, Houston said the group is about bettering the community.
“Cleaning highways, getting kids to stay off the streets, and not drink or smoke, and getting them to stay in school, to get a high school diploma at least if they don’t plan on going to college.”
The coat and blanket drive was held at the Coretta Scott King Center at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, and the Rev. Jesse Turner, director of Interested Citizens for Voter Registration, said members of the King Team were also going to spend time working outside the center, raking leaves and picking up trash.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said ‘the most urgent and persistent question is, what are you doing for your community?’ and that’s what we’re doing today, something for the community,’ Turner said. “We need to raise our young folks to take the lead because young people are going to write the new history of Pine Bluff.”
Turner said any coats and blankets collected during the drive will be given to Neighbor to Neighbor or the Salvation Army.
“We’re trying to help those more in need,” said Timothy Mitchell, 18, who has been a member of the King Team since 2003 and is currently a freshman at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. “There are people who need coats, and there are elderly people who need blankets.”
For the past few years, the King Team fed first responders (police, fire department and ambulance personnel) on the Saturday preceding the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but this year, Turner said they decided to do something different.
“It’s a brand-new issue today,” he said.
Fourth Ward Alderman Steven Mays was on hand Saturday to lend his support to the effort.
“The King Team encourages others to get involved in helping the community and I’m going to do what I can to help them,” Mays said.