Recap of Saturday's Event at Athens Park

A Better LA hosted a Family Day in Athens Park in South Los Angeles this past Saturday. USC's Trojan Knights also helped volunteer for the event (Check them out at www.trojanknights.org)! A Better LA volunteer Scot Obler recapped the event for us and took some pictures:

While Pete Carroll was in Wisconsin on Saturday to celebrate the life of young Trojan fan Ryan Davidson, a large group of volunteers back in L.A. were helping to save lives through A Better LA, the organization founded by Coach Carroll to bring peace to our local neighborhoods.

More than 1,000 community members attended the first annual Family Day at Athens Park, enjoying live music, carnival games and prizes, bounce houses and food. They came to enjoy a day of peace and fun, in a park that in previous years was known mostly for the gang violence that occurred there.

Helping run the games and serve the food were the Trojan Knights and a hardworking group of A Better LA volunteers. Mark Chow and A Foundation For Kids supplied all of the games, food and equipment to make the day possible. Local partner for inner city peace, CURE, also provided a great group of volunteers that helped organize the day and make it known to those in attendance that this day would be a celebration of how neighborhoods can enjoy time together, regardless of the geographical boundaries. Those boundaries have sometimes created separation and opposition amongst people that so clearly enjoyed the same activities on a warm Los Angeles afternoon.

Former Trojan football star Darrell Rideaux, who has his own foundation in Long Beach to work towards peaceful communities there, was a welcome guest. Darrell wasn’t there as a celebrity, he was there to talk to people, to be part of what was happening, and even to help the load the truck at the end of the day. It was also he who pointed out the greatest event of day — when care bags of food and personal items were handed out to the families in attendance — and told us to get a picture of the guys unloading the bags from the truck. He said these were rival gang members who were unloading the truck, working side-by-side to help the people in their neighborhoods — and to make A Better L.A.

-A Better LA volunteer Scot Obler



Two girls play a carnival game during Family Day.


Prominent members of the community come together at Family Day as peace and hope are becoming a reality in South Los Angeles.


USC's Trojan Knights volunteered at the event, helping to make it a success.


Volunteers unload care packages of food and personal items for families in attendance.


Two kids from the community play a jousting game during Family Day on Saturday.


Check out our Facebook "Causes" page for more pictures. Also take a look at a post about Saturday's event on the USC Rips It blog (www.USCRipsIt.com).