STARKVILLE — When Brookville Garden apartments resident Santangelo Outlaw saw that the neighborhood’s kids were going without winter coats, she couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
“I’d see children without any jackets on, nose running, and when I asked them to put one on so they don’t get sick, they’d say they didn’t have a jacket, or couldn’t wear it until Christmas,” she told The Dispatch Monday.
But thanks to a coat drive held by Outlaw and other members of the new group BG on the Rise, the neighborhood’s children will be a little warmer this winter.
BG on the Rise gave away the coats on Dec. 21, as part of its efforts to change the trajectory of the neighborhood that organizers said has struggled with crime and poverty. Brookville Garden is Section 8 housing, meaning rent is federally subsidized for qualifying low-income tenants.
“We’re trying to get our neighborhood back from the drug dealers, gangbangers, to have a safe environment for both our children and the elderly people that live here,” Kenneth Logan, one of the group’s members, said Dec. 27. “… We’re trying to take our whole city back. But it starts one coat at a time. If something as simple as a coat can have all these people emerge, imagine what we can do as a whole community converging on crime.”
Logan said BG on the Rise started in October, following the September death of Cynthia Dailey. McKenzie Robinson, 16, allegedly drove a vehicle into Dailey and two other victims, running them over. Robinson was arrested and charged with murder and two counts of aggravated assault in connection to the incident.
Logan said that the incident, along with high crime rates and consistent gang activity problems among the neighborhood’s youth, led BG on the Rise’s 10 members to try and do something to foster greater community in the area.
Not long after the group began, BG on the Rise started collecting coats, accepting donations from both individuals and organizations like churches, civic groups and fraternities/sororities.
All told, the group’s coat drive collected and distributed 237 donated winter coats, mostly to schoolchildren but also to any adults that needed help keeping warm over the winter. The Laymen’s Fellowship from Sand Creek Chapel Missionary Baptist Church took the opportunity to donate 15 bikes to the neighborhood’s kids as well.
“We want to let everyone there know that there are a lot of people outside of the community supporting them,” Orlando Trainer, Oktibbeha County District 2 Supervisor and a member of the fellowship, told The Dispatch Friday. “Trying to be as supportive as we can, not something temporary or something one and done. … I think it’s going in the right direction. And I’m looking forward to seeing the youngsters over there try to improve their circumstances. The sky’s the limit for them.”
Though Logan said the group isn’t financially supported by the county or city, the coat drive had plenty of backing from public officials, the area’s civic groups, the Starkville Police Department and the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office.
Mayor Lynn Spruill attended to donate food and help pick up litter, and told The Dispatch that other attendees included Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn, Ward 1 Alderwoman Kim Moreland and Joe Williams, the vice president of the Oktibbeha County board of supervisors.
Brookville Garden’s owner Triangle Development Corp. spent $11 million in 2023 to renovate the neighborhood buildings, preventing three of them from being condemned and demolished. Spruill praised the neighborhood’s residents accompanying the neighborhood’s physical revitalization investments with revitalized community.
“The developer’s investments made the properties much more habitable, which starts the process,” she said. “But the neighborhood element of the people themselves make that process sustainable. … it’s important that (people see) the neighborhood is trying to come together and become a place where people are respectful of others who live there.”
Both Logan and Trainer told The Dispatch Friday that they didn’t believe Brookville Garden’s issues were entirely internal, instead pointing the finger at non-residents who come into the neighborhood because of its reputation.
“We had a lot of people hanging out that weren’t on the leases and didn’t belong over here,” Logan said. “It had taken over the neighborhood. We came together as a group to take our neighborhood back, and so far so good.”
While BG on the Rise doesn’t yet have plans solid enough to share publicly, the group meets every other week, and Logan said it’s currently considering starting athletic summer programming for the neighborhood’s youth in partnership with Mississippi State University.
“We’re looking forward to outlining and planning some things for spring and summer break to curb crime,” Logan said. “If we keep (kids) busy, they’ll be too tired to go out and commit crimes.”
Still, the group’s overall goal is clear.
“I joined this group to be a light, hoping it would be contagious,” Outlaw said. “You know how negative things always spread? The positive can spread just like that.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
