- May 10, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Braden Woods resident Jake Mullery noticed a trend on social media: people were asking lots of questions about their communities but didn’t seem to know where to get answers or how to take action.
“If I didn’t do something about it, then I was being part of the problem,” he said.
Mullery decided to start pulling his community back together by starting a group that could involve families and allow adults and children to mingle together.
The underlying theme of the group will be reading, exchanging books and recommending authors. Mullery said he was never a big reader but he always noticed his friends being able to have a quality conversation that started because of a common book they had read. For his group, books would be an easy starting point for communication with adults and give kids something in common, too.
Mullery hopes the group with grow from a focus on reading to a gathering for community members to talk about local issues and community needs. He hopes to reach out to not only Braden Woods, but also River Club and Lakewood Ranch.
“Getting pople involved in their own local community will get them reunited,” he said. “It will get parents and adults together to discuss community issues.”
The group’s first event will be a book drive on Sunday, March 13 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Summerfield Park, and another April 3.
Starting this summer, Mullery hopes to get the group together on the first Sunday of the month at Summerfield Park. The group will also have “play and trade” Sundays where kids can play in the park and families can trade books. These gatherings will start the first Sunday of July.
As the group gets going, Mullery hopes it will expand and motivate others in the community to start talking to one another again.
“We’ve lost that interaction with our local community,” he said. “The success of this group will be based on how committed the community wants to be — what they bring to the table.”
For more information, email Mullery at [email protected].
