 Hello, Columbia. Welcome to our edition of Telling Our Story, Exploring the Parks. I am your host, Wanda Austin Herndon. Join us as we explore our parks. Welcome to Lord Park. Meet my friends. Today, with Telling Our Story, we're exploring Lord Park. So come join us for a friendly game of kickball. Ready, guys? Let's go. Park with its beautiful treetop landscape is located in North Columbia at 1900 Lorrick Avenue right below Hyde Park Elementary School. The park features indoor and outdoor basketball courts, splash pad, ball field, a natural walking trail in which features a fitness outdoor equipment area, which was donated in 2018 by Richland County Eat Smart Move More Coalition. In the spring of 2021, Lord Park cut the ribbon on two new playground structures at the park. It's beneficial to have this park here being that we're right across from an area that houses a lot of youth trying to keep them engaged and everything and getting them make sure they stay out of trouble. Trying to be a positive role model. Lorrick is home to many of the city's major outreach programs, such as the afternoon feeding program, educational gardening, prime time in the parks, city mentoring programs, and many other athletic programs. We currently host a lot of programs. We have our arts and crafts, which we call Crafty Kids. We also have our girl circle, which caters to self-esteem and keeping the self-esteem up with young ladies. We have our mentoring program that is for girls and boys teaching them life skills. We also cater to our teenagers. We do teen court. We have game night and we also do fun Fridays, which is held on the 1st and 3rd Friday. The Lorrick Park and Big Homie Little Homie Connection started actually in 2018. We did several programs here and it was just surely amazing because we were in a safe environment. Our kids had a really wonderful time and the staff made us feel like home. So this is our new home and we have done countless events here and it's been really eye-opening just to have those one-on-one conversations, those old group conversations with the kids that attend here just to talk about life skills, healthy eating, healthy relationships, things that they're not getting taught at school, but they will definitely need it when they go back to their communities. League sports are also hosted at Lorrick Park. Team sports such as T-ball, baseball, basketball, soccer and city hoops. Operational hours for Lorrick Park are 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. Sunday hours of operation are slightly different, so please feel free to contact the park directly for this information. If you're looking for a safe, fun and friendly place, this is the place to come. We open. As with all our parks, our mission here at the City of Columbia Parks and Recreation is to change lives through a culture of transformational leadership, innovation, and phenomenal customer service. Thank you for joining us today, and please join us in the future for more episodes of Telling Our Story, Exploring the Park. And remember, we are Colombians.