Volunteers from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office were busy Saturday working on the concession stand at Wildwood Middle High School’s baseball field.
The group was completely refurbishing the rundown facility through a donation provided to the sheriff’s office by the Shane McGee Project, which honors the life of a 13-year-old child who was killed many years ago in an automobile accident. McGee’s parents, Bob and Connie, who moved to the Village of Pennecamp in April 2017 from South Florida, said they made the donation to repair facilities at the Wildwood school to honor their son, who loved to play baseball.
“We decided we were going to invest in young people,” Connie McGee said.
“We try to do things to bring his memory back and not lose track of him and what he was and who he was,” Bob McGee added.
On Saturday, members of the sheriff’s office were doing their best to make the McGee family proud by breaking down the baseball field concession stand and basically starting over on the interior. Old, rundown equipment was coming out, to be replaced with new appliances needed to run a concession stand. The refurbishment project also includes pressure washing the concession stand floor and then giving the building a fresh coat of paint inside and out, among other things.
“We hope this shows the students that we really care about them,” said Beth Hunt, outreach coordinator for the sheriff’s office. “Our deputies may come in contact with the kids and sometimes they’ve gotten negative feedback, whether it be from TV, social media or whoever they’re getting it from. We just want them to really recognize that we care about them.”
Deputy Toby Lockwood, who serves in the road patrol unit in Bushnell, said it’s a great opportunity to give back to students.
“They need that boost,” said Lockwood, who along with a partner owns Two Cops Construction and is well-versed in refurbishing and remodeling buildings. “They need to feel proud of what they have.”
Lockwood also said he believes the hard work the sheriff’s office is putting into the project will pay off with the students down the road.
“This is an underprivileged area and these kids don’t always have good relationships with law enforcement,” he said. “Unfortunately we do have to arrest parents and brothers and sisters. But this gives us the opportunity to show them that we’re just people giving back. It gives them the opportunity to know that we do care.”
Lockwood said he’s been involved with the project since the sheriff’s office kicked it off earlier this summer. He cited the complete overhaul of the softball concession stand as an incentive to accomplish the same kind of things with the baseball facility.
“Oh, I’m going to see the same thing here that I see over there, just unbelievable results,” he said with a smile. “It’s night and day. It went from a disaster to something to be proud of.”
Gary Brannen, a 30-year veteran of the sheriff’s office who serves as chief deputy, said he’s sure the athletes at Wildwood Middle High School will be very surprised when they return to school Aug. 13.
“They left school last year and they know what it looked like then, and they come back this year and it’s very different,” he said. “And once they know it was average, everyday people in the community who saw this need, I think it will even mean more to them.”
Brannen said he’s thrilled to be volunteering on the project because he’s a huge believer in the positives that come from school athletics.
“It helps build character and team spirit,” he said. “Schools need their athletic teams to get behind and rally through. It’s important to them. And if it’s important to children in Sumter County, it’s important to us.”
Hunt agreed.
“We really hope this will help them be proud of their school,” she said. “And maybe their families, parents and loved ones will get more involved when they see the work we’ve done. Maybe they’ll be proud and want to come back and help out.”
Once the project is complete, Lockwood said he’ll look back on it with pride, though he said he’s not involved to receive any kind of recognition.
“To be able to give back to the kids in this community that I work in, that’s all I need,” he said. “I don’t need anything else out of it. I just need the kids to be proud of it. That’s all that matters to me. Because without the kids, we’ve got nothing. They’re our future.”