ADRIAN — Jamar Bonney wants kids in the Adrian community to know that somebody cares.
It’s a passion driven both by his own experiences and by a deep sense of faith.
“God saved my life and I felt like I had to give something back to the youth, to give them something to look forward to,” said Bonney, who was recently presented with the Lenawee NAACP’s 2023 Community Service Award.
Not all that many years ago, Bonney said, “I was in a dark spot in life, wanting to give up.”
But going back to church and getting baptized helped him turn a corner. Now, having experienced feeling hopeless drives him to serve the youth of Adrian, both professionally and as a volunteer.
For the past several years, Bonney has run a free event for kids every Easter at Parish Park, at the corner of Erie and Tecumseh streets. It’s called the PG Community Day — the PG stands for Praise God — and Bonney recalls that “we really just started out of pocket, just scraping together what I could afford.”
That first year, kids enjoyed hot dogs and an Easter egg hunt. Michigan International Speedway donated a box of plastic eggs and they were hidden throughout the park with dollar bills inside.
“It’s grown every year, honestly,” Bonney said. “Every year has been better.”
At last year’s event, kids ranged in age from about 6 to 14, though there isn’t a hard limit on who can take part.
“We don’t want to turn down anybody,” he said.
This year Bonney is hoping to secure some bicycles to give away at the event. He’s also working on plans for a Summer Bash after the end of school.
Bonney’s resume is also filled with service-oriented jobs, including positions at the Adrian Senior Center and Communities in Schools, and as a graduation coach in the Adrian and Hudson school districts. He now works for Genacross Lutheran Services, which operates a residential facility in Adrian for kids who are wards of the state. He describes his goal as “trying to show them that their trauma is not a crutch and that they can do anything if they put their mind to it.”
The job is a challenging one. “You have to learn how to be patient, you have to learn how to be firm,” he said.
Bonney said he’d love to see more people get involved in showing kids in the community that they are cared about.
“There’s a lot of youth out there with no direction or guidance,” he said.
