Here’s one last post to brag about just how incredible our community truly is — a story of rivals helping rivals, and neighbors stepping up when it matters most.
During the Friday night tornadoes on March 14, Bakersfield’s Pride Park was destroyed, leaving the school’s baseball and softball teams without a home field. For the rest of the season, they’ll be playing only away games.
But what happened next shows the heart of our local schools and businesses: they didn’t hesitate to help.
Several rival schools stepped up in big ways — holding fundraisers, volunteering time, and helping with clean-up efforts to begin restoring Pride Park.
The Mountain Home Football Team volunteered their time distributing supplies and assisting in recovery efforts in the days after the storm.
The Gainesville baseball team raised approximately $2,500 during their Baseball Home Opener fish fry, showing that even on the field, compassion comes first.
The West Plains Zizzer Baseball team collected over $1,350 for the Pride Park rebuilding project during their Baseball Jamboree, with a simple donation bucket and a community willing to give generously.
The Dora Falcons also pitched in, collecting donations during their Falcon Jamboree on March 17 and volunteering machinery and labor hours to help with the clean-up efforts. (We are still waiting for the final fundraising amount — please comment if you know!)
But it wasn’t just financial support — schools across the region offered up their own fields for Bakersfield teams to practice on. The high school teams will use Richards fields, and the junior high teams will practice at Fairview fields.
I’m certain there are even more schools and people who quietly helped out — if you know of others, please comment on the corresponding Facebook post so we can recognize them as well!
And it didn’t stop with schools. Local businesses and individuals also showed up in huge ways. We’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to:
- Century Bank of the Ozarks (Bakersfield location)
- Church of Christ
- Janell and Andy Pryor with GEM
- Andrew Eckman with Shelter Insurance
- Riverside Church of Christ
- Tribal Cajun
- Wicked Wok
- At the Curb
- Bootleggers Barbecue
- Jett’s Dirt Work
- Devin Murphy and his crew
- The amazing coaches and staff of Bakersfield Schools
And to the individual community members, Bakersfield pointed out who gave their time, talent, and heart: The Chaffin family, Mason, Jack, Shylee Tucker, Emma and Lily Summerhill, Austin Lamb, Harley Smith, and Christi Pedano — you are true community heroes.
Today’s dose of goodness is a reminder of the incredible people, schools, and businesses around us. Schools helping their rivals. Strangers stepping up for one another. Businesses lending support beyond their own communities.
Thank you to every single person, school, and business that Bakersfield has called a lifesaver — and to those who helped quietly in the background. You’ve shown that even in the toughest times, community always wins.
