Killeen Service Platoon invites community to help restore park in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Harker Heights, Texas (KWTX) - The Killeen Service Platoon is partnering with the city of Harker Heights to restore parts of Carl Levin Park, hoping to bring the community together in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of community service.

“It’s all about community, and that was one of the things he was about, community, bringing the community together, getting to work for a common goal,” Assistant Platoon Leader and Vice President of American Veterans Mission Will Britt said.

He said members wanted to serve the community with a hands-on project, so they coordinated with the city to work on the park on MLK Day. They are inviting the community to come out and help them.

“The park personnel here really do a very good job keeping our community recreation areas clean and stuff, but they can’t do it all the time,” Britt said. “They’re not always on site to go and find a deficiency that may need to be fixed. That’s one of the things we’re going to try to do here.”

The service platoon plans to restore the community garden in the park. Britt said the garden is overgrown with weeds, so they plan to pull the weeds, clean it up and repair fencing.

They also plan to get the community pool ready for summer maintenance. They will be cleaning up the outside area and moving pool chairs so that the park can properly get it ready for the summer season.

Britt said the beams of the Gazebo that overlooks the water was recently redone, so they plan on painting it and cleaning up any trash around it.

He said they actually plan to pick up trash around the entire park and power wash the pavilion before they set up underneath it.

“We have an excellent opportunity to bring the community together and not just passing each other on the street or passing in Walmart and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’” Britt said. “It’s something we can experience together.”

In addition to the clean-up projects around the park, they will have free food, a DJ and a speaker for all who attend and help out.

“He’s going to be talking about his experiences when he went through the hotel where Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis,” Britt said about the speaker that will be at the event. “He’s going to talk about his experiences there, and having gone through that, he also is a retired military as well.”

They ask that anyone who plans on attending sign up via this form. The form is not required if you would like to participate in the event, but they do recommend that you fill out the form so they can know the amount of food they need to prepare.

The platoon is hoping for a good turnout to make it an annual event for different parks around the area.

The Killeen Service Platoon is a part of the national organization, Mission Continues, that unites veterans with local organizations to serve the community.

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