A nod to those who give back in the Collar City
The Collar City is a busy place to keep up with.
It seems like there’s always something going on in Troy, whether it’s positive or negative.
Prior to 2015, I never really came to Troy for anything, besides attending Hudson Valley Community College from 2010-12. Growing up in the Capital Region, I would watch the news on TV and see a lot of the negative things occurring in Troy such as crime, and I would honestly think Troy was just a bad place to be.
However, since working and covering the Collar City the past few years, I can say my opinion of the city has changed for the better. Although I know there are still the crime stories (which I know occurs in other Capital Region cities), I started to realize there are many positive stories to also cover around Troy.
As I started to meet people like Billy Carter, Jerry Ford, Kevin Pryor, Tafari Harper, Naquin Walls, and Jennifer Crespo, I began to realize there are a lot of people who do care about their community and do all they can to make it a positive atmosphere for children and other community members.
After talking with Billy Carter the other day about his 7th annual free community Easter Sunday meal in downtown Troy, it made me think of him and so many others that volunteer so much of their time to give back to the community.
Billy Carter hosts Christmas Day community meals as well as other events through his Kingdom Ministries program. As
I got to know Billy’s life story more and knowing he overcame addiction and jail time and now strives to give back to others in need makes me respect him even more.
Jerry Ford is another man I’ve gotten to know well over the years, and he’s always hosting some kind of event through his Team Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunities and Block Center programs. Knowing Jerry also changed his life around after going through similar challenges as Billy Carter, also makes me appreciate the work that he does in the community now.
After a quadruple homicide rocked the Collar City community a couple of years ago, when word got out that the children involved in the horrific incident were members of the Troy Boys and Girls Club, it was inspiring to see people like Jerry Ford and others step up and help other family members of the victims along with all those who knew the Myers family.
Tafari Harper, who is an employee at the Boys and Girls Club, is someone else who is always going out of his way to help organize various free events for the community to participate in. Anytime I go on Facebook, I always end up seeing a live-stream video that Tafari is doing to help bring more attention to various upcoming events.
Although I have not personally worked with people like Kevin Pryor, Naquin Walls, and Jennifer Crespo as much, I know from meeting them a few times and from social media they are also heavily involved in giving back to the Troy community.
It’s always nice to do news stories about these types of people since you know it will always be a positive story and that it will help bring attention to positive community events for people to participate in.
Although we do have to report on various crime stories here and there (or at least when we are able to get details about those incidents), I can now say I know Troy has much more going on than just the negative attention it seems to get a lot of the time.