Tonight, we graciously hosted the Men’s Basketball Coach at Missouri State University (MSU), Dana Ford along with the Springfield Police Department’s Chief Paul Williams. We discussed the initiative and partnership they have formed to start the program Bears, Badges, and Kids. This program will have players from the MSU Basketball team, members of the Springfield Police Department and kids from our community, on their home courts, coming together on Saturday mornings to play pick up and talk with each other in hopes of educating and forming positive relationships. Chief Williams and Coach Ford should be commended for their efforts on taking action with their platforms and being positively engaged in our community. My thanks for their compassion, caring and efforts with this much needed intervention in our society. I feel it will have a tremendous impact and will hopefully ripple through the city. Thank you, also, to Community Partnership of the Ozarks and all that are involved in making this happen.

Next week, it’s challenge time again! We will once again challenge Ned Reynolds and Art Hains, if they are brave enough to accept! Our first challenge was to have them perform play by play and color analyst work on a Hibachi chef at Nakato Japanese Steakhouse. We then played “Play by Play” charades. Tune in for the latest challenge for these two Hall of Famers, Wednesday, July 1, 2020.