JaxSNL: Johnnie Walker Center

Exterior view of Grand Park Community Center

 

What's up at Johnnie Walker Center?

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  • Events Every Week
    • 7 p.m. to midnight: sports, swimming, art, music and community center activities
    • 7 to 9:30: nutrition and fitness, food vendors, community resources, family activities.
Thanks for a Great Summer
Site Blog
Come and watch Despicable Me with us Saturday July 2nd @ 8:30 p.m!

Come listen to new music with 93.3 FM on Friday June 24th @ 8:00 p.m!
 
6/24 Fri.
Ok so this is how we did it in Grand Park for the SNL jump off weekend. Talk about ups and downs. Lol. First, the decision on whether to host the opening ceremony bounced back and forth from outside to inside. Ms. Mercedes made the right call and (even tho it was bright, sunny AND dry at 6:50pm) she moved the set up inside to be safe. And guess what??? At 7:30, it started pouring down raining :( But we were ready for whatever so we quickly moved our stereo system under the canopy and came inside to get the show started. Speakers spoke, people clapped and kids showed extreme interest. We’re almost certain that the community didn’t realize how many important and respected people worked behind the scenes to pull this program off, but they got the picture now and are ready to put it down for the summer. We could tell because the young people were still comin’ out at 11:30pm Friday night.
 
6/25
Saturday was a different story. The rain throwed us off a bit. We did the best we could to still get people to come out and those that came had a blast. Shavon stood on the corner with the bullhorn for a while and Our vendor was on deck with them big fat hamburgers. He also sells  them all beef sausages for the low. We had 93.3 playing inside and out but all that did was mostly made us jealous that T Roy was at the dog gone BET Awards. Its all good tho cuz Easy E had the Micheal Jackson ride out goin and that was fun. We basically just kicked off all our tournaments (Madden, NBA 2K11, etc). Pool sticks and Wii controllers stayed on rotation. Dunbar was mainly organizing and keeping people from scratching up the center floor. We rearranged the storage room so that it could double as a classroom for our work shops. By the way shot out to Ms. Brittany the Nutrition specialist with them good ol fruit salads. Anyways, we got a pool party Friday and Saturday the whole Grand Park will be watching the movie out there.

7/1-7/2
Week 2 was pretty much the same as last week in Grand Park numbers wise. We seen some of the same faces and a few new faces too. Quite a few families took part in the board games. There were fathers with sons, grandmothers with their grand kids and a couple single mothers fell threw. Honestly, the center was a real hit. We even had Miss Wiley in the building (the mother of the Head Coach for the Raines High School football team). She beat everybody in Wii Bowling. We had absolutely no one on the basketball court for some reason tho which sucks cuz we wanted to start our 3 on 3 tournament next week but its all good. All y’all that can hoop still got time to jump down. The court was probably slow because most of the kids were doing football drills with Coach Calvin and DP or learning how to play soccer with Robert. Everybody else was rock climbing or either in the pool. Speaking of the pool, its hard to get folks out that pool! We couldn’t even get em out with one of the best family movies of all time. They are literally in there for 6 or 7 hours! Oh well, guess that what summer is for.

July 8, 2011

We started off by breaking up in groups of two’s to promote the Summer Night Light program in the community. Due to the whether the center had a slow start but as time went pass and it begin to clear up people started to come in. Inside the center we provided many board games such as monopoly, sorry, checkers, chess and many more. Also there was a table set up for card games and pool table. There were a lot of young faces who showed up, but we had a few older crowds that also came through. We didn’t except so many to show up because of the weather but they started flowing in and ready to compete with the games we provided. Some decided to run a one on one competition on the basketball court and also racing in the streets. There was a good crowd that showed up for the pool.

July 9, 2011

We started off helping set up the center with the board games, tables, pool table and etc.. Today was a special day because a young lady decided to celebrate her birthday. A lot of people showed up from the community including her friends and family. We had crabs, oysters, drinks and a DJ to keep the party alive. There were many kids running around playing different type of board game, some did arts and craft and played horse shoe. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves either eating or doing the latest dance moves to the music.

 By Qiona Donald

 Friday July 15
Johnnie Walker SNL crew started the night with promotion & set up for the night. Also had cooked some free food for those who came out in the community. The night was slow once the rain stopped. In the beginning of the night there were kids in the center playing on the wii and with the games. People were at the basketball court and the pool no one was really at the field. Later once the food was all done more people came into the center and more people were at the pool. There wasn’t as many people last night that Johnnie Walker usually have.

On July 22, 2011 the SNL team did a lot of promoting until 7:00.then we started to see a few of our community coming inside of the center. Some was playing board games and some was doing other inside activities. The SNL didn’t have enough people like we planned on having, but we did have a good little crowd. We had some of our community on the basketball field and some were also on the football field. As the night started to continue we had some of the community inside the pool and we also had the music at the pool. so everyone pretty much enjoyed their selves. After all the SNL team completed our mission for today. You should come through sometime.

By: Zykerrea

Saturday July 23 2011, was a pretty good day. Every one came in and started promoting. By 6:00 the crowd stared rolling to watch the Grand Park vs Brentwood football scrimmage game. This made our crowd bigger then usual. Younger kids came into the center to play games mostly the wii some spent most of their time enjoying the arts and crafts table. The talent show stage was set and the radio was set up to the stage till the talent show started. The nutrition lady came and set up kids came in and listened to what she had to say and ate all the food. Very few people where at the pool and there were new faces showing up at the pool which also had a crowd. The talent show went well a lot of the younger kids got on stage and sang some even dance. During the talent show we surprised the crowd with our flash mob performance. After our performance people went back into the center, some stayed at the pool and some went back on stage.

By: Akua

Friday July 29 2011 was a good day every thing started off slow due to the rain but picked up a little after. There was a lot of new faces that showed up tonight and the community were interacting with SNL more. The grandpark dancers started there practice today and the basketball court had encountered some action as well. Inside the center the younger kids once again enjoyed most of their time at SNL on the arts and craft table taking their creativity to another level this week. Outside the vendor station was full with customers once again; we had people enjoy the SNL music that was played some even danced wishing we it was a party. The pool had a nice little group out there tonight babies to grandparents were enjoying themselves. Throughout the night there were people signing up for the different tournament that will be held next week. People are looking forward to the chance to play pool basketball. But tonight was a good night cant wait to see what tomorrow holds.

 Saturday July 30, 2011 was a pretty smooth day wasn’t any rain in the sky to interrupt the day. Promotion was easy since there wasn’t any rain slowing the process down. There were many different faces that came out today and not very many of the old faces, this week has been a different crowd. More people are staring to bring their children out to the park cars full of people wanting to see what SNL is all about. There wasn’t any one on the field or the basketball courts today but everyone was either in the pool or in the center. The younger children were having a blast on the wii and playstation. The arts & craft table had a bunch of different projects going on at once. The nutrition lady also had them entertained with them coloring for her them trying the different foods that she had which they enjoyed. Cant wait for next week. J J J

By Akua


FRI 8/5/11

 

Today at Johnnie Walker summer night lights we reached out to the neighborhood and every one in sight. While heading down kings road we passed out tons of information about SNL. We even went down canal and what a long road it was, seeing people that we already knew we stop to ask if they was gone to come out tonight. With a great reply it was a yes. Later Grand Park the football team had practice and the crowd that came with it stuck around to have fun with the staff and the events that they presented. Around 10:30 everyone played two hand touch football and joked around and of course after that the after party was at the pool. What a night it was

By Shavon

 

 

Saturday August 6, 2011 was a good day promotion was good we went out into different parts of the neighborhood. We came back not many people were around the park so the day started of slow. Very few people were at the basketball court, no one was really at pool and the usual amounts of people were in the center. By 9:00 more the number of people increase. A few of the usual families that come to the park, today they brought food and more different faces. They enjoyed the music tonight and had them a nice night with the Johnnie walker SNL team. Now we just wait to see how next weekend is going to be. Its likely Johnnie Walker will go out with a bang. People started to go to the pool and some came in the center for a little. Tonight every minute it seemed as though the number of people increased significantly. Now we wait to see what our last week of SNL brings us. Can’t wait J

August 12, 2011 the summer night light team had a very big crowd. Some of our community was on the football field and some was inside the center. The summer night light team made a very big number on a Friday. We had a lot of our families participating with the activities that were going on inside the center. Some of our community was in the pool, until it started to poor down. Our night went by pretty fast. We served chicken n fries, and we also had burgers and hotdogs for our community. The (SNL) team once again achieved our journey for today. We looking for tomorrow to be even better.

August 13, 2011  Ok so the last day of SNL was exactly like the first day of SNL… Full of ups and downs. When the staff first got here, all the Grand Park football teams and coaches were still in the park because they went to weigh in at Cecil Field earlier. People were getting ready to cook out but it started to rain so everybody came inside the center and went hard on the pool tables and even made up this other game with the velcro tennis ball and glove. A person would throw the ball up and four kids with gloves would all jump to get it. It was cool to watch. Anyways, the sun came back out and that’s when it started goin down for real. The center and the pool was goin at the same time until the Nutrition Party jumped off. We made everybody color a My Plate worksheet and then we ate from all the food groups including sugars (cake and ice cream)! Footsteps gave away some back school supplies too. We all got full and headed to the pool. The pool was as packed as it has ever been but we had to get out because it was lightening. So we just took it to the court for the 5 on 5 Tournament. The SNL Squad beat Grand Park 16 -14 for the title. Just when we was about to get back in the pool, it started pourin’ down raining and didn’t stop. So we took it back inside, played music, spades and Play Station 3. The madden tournament went down to the wire. Didn’t get the champs name but he was fire. At 12:00 no one wanted to leave. Partly because of the weather but mostly because they were sad to see SNL vacate Grand Park. It was fun but its go time now. Good luck this football season. Dueces.

 

 


 

 

 


 





Pictures by Community Center Photographers

 (Click on picture for larger image)

 Nutrition tips at Johnnie Walker SNL  Try your skills at Connect Four. Mayor Alvin Brown at SNL. 
 SNL at Johnnie Walker Park.  SNL teens playing the game Sorry  Playtime at the pool.

 

 

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