Carothers receives community service award

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer
WINFIELD — Former Winfield Park and Recreation Board Chairman Chris Carothers received the community service retirement award from the Alabama Recreation and Parks Association for his 20 years of service on the board.
“It was an honor. I was humbled by receiving that because it’s a state award,” Carothers said. “It was a community service retirement award because my term ended (last October), and they counted that as me retiring. I don’t know how many other parks submitted a nominee for that, so it was a great honor. The ARPA is state-wide, and we don’t usually have recipients of any awards for that. We’ve had some in the past, but it was an honor for me to get that after 20 years of service with the park.”
Carothers began serving on the park board about 20 years ago when his children were still around the ages of five and three. Over those years, the park has added new baseball fields, new fencing, a new surface for the walking track and more.
Carothers said the park spent about 10 years working to get a new gym, and that plan is finally beginning to come to fruition. The park also added new sports over the years, such as soccer and Buddy Ball for children with special needs.
“But that’s not attributable to me. I’ve worked with several different people over the years, and it’s been a team effort with all of us working on the board,” Carothers said. “Our senior program has built up. We were down to close to 20…