Published: September 30, 2008 11:29 am      

Bray folks celebrate

BRAY — BRAY — After being 25 years in the community, Lakeside Baptist Church decided to give something back Saturday afternoon in appreciation.

The church held an evening hamburger barbecue for anyone who would come and partake.

Donna Estes, a volunteer at the event, said that the event was free, but donations would be accepted. Any donations will go to Bray’s volunteer firefighters.

“This is the first time we’re doing this,” Estes said. “We wanted to get outside the church walls and into the community. It’s our gift back to the community.”

As another way of celebrating with the community, the church gave away door prizes. One of them was an OSU basketball that was autographed by the OSU girl’s basketball team.

Pastor Lawrence Gresham, who helped to organize it, said it was a good thing for the community.

“We thought this was a great way to bring the community together,” Gresham said.

Estes said that one way that the church reached out to the community was to invite Bray volunteer firefighters cook the food Saturday on a four foot wide grill.

Bray Firefighter Chief Bennie Whaley said that the church approached the firefighters about grilling for them a few months ago for the community’s birthday celebration.

There were three firefighters who came out to help grill Saturday.

“I wanted to give everyone else a little rest because they’ll have to cook on the 10th of October for community appreciation day,” Whaley said.

On that day, the firefighters will grill food for everyone for free before Bray’s football game.

Volunteer firefighter Thomas Whitehead said Saturday that the grill will cook about 30 to 40 hamburgers at a time.

“I started cooking today about 3:30 p.m.,” Whitehead said. “The grill’s about a year old or so.”

Whaley said that before they purchased the grill about a year ago, they were borrowing one from Halliburton.

“Then we all decided to invest in one and we bought our own,” Whaley said.

Saturday, there was plenty of food ready to be eaten, Estes said.

“I have no idea how many have come so far, but we’ve prepared enough food for about 300 people,” Estes said at about 5 p.m. Saturday. She then estimated that about 100 people had come so far.