COMMUNITY EVENT
St. James AME Church in Gray held a fall festival on Oct. 15, gathering residents around the Jones County community for some fall fun.
Lucy Coxton, a coordinator for the event, said she was excited for the event, and she was glad to see the people who came out to the fall festival.
“Our fall festival had a lot of fun things to do. We had face painting, bingo, free food, bouncy houses, and more,” she said. “We were glad with all of the people who came out to enjoy this free event. We do this every year, and everyone in the community is invited.”
The coordinator said they put on their fall festival each year for the children in the community. She said it’s something fun for them to do. She said she enjoys having the event every year.
“This fall festival is important to have, because it allows everyone to get together. We need to join together as one. The community helps us, and we wanted to give back to the community,” she said.
Coxton said people could participate in face painting, bingo, a cake walk, a chance for guests to get their COVID-19 boosters, a book signing by Justin Blount, bouncy houses, and lots of free food such as popcorn and snow cones.
Blount, the author, lives in Atlanta but visited Jones County since his grandmother lives here. He said he wanted to do a book signing at the fall festival while he was in town. He said it feels awesome to already be an author at the age of 13.
“The book is called Differences Matter, Diversity Matters: A Story About My
Brother and Me. My book is about diversity,” he said. “It’s about what kids face from different backgrounds and bringing awareness to the problems. It’s about two brothers who go to the same school who face many, many challenges.”
The author said he got the idea to write his book, because he lives in a multicultural and multiracial family. He said he wanted to bring more awareness to multi diversity and inclusion. He said anyone can learn from his book, not just children.
The young author said he’s thinking about writing another book at some point. He said he’s always thought about writing his own book before, and he’s glad he did so.
“People can learn a lot about diversity from my book. I know there are a lot of books out there about multi diversity and inclusion, but they can learn from mine, too,” Blount said.
Coxton said she understands people have to be safe during COVID-19, but people go everywhere else, so she feels they could have come to the fall festival and church, too. She said the church does a lot for the community. She said she hopes the people who did show up enjoyed the event.
“People should have come to this event, because they could have met people. They could have met people they don’t know,” the coordinator said. “Most of the time we deal with people we already know, so we wanted the community to come together and mingle a bit. We wanted the kids and everyone to enjoy themselves.”
Justin Blount’s book can be purchased at barnesandnoble.com. or booksamillion.com.
