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BREAKING TO LOVE
When someone suggested to Grace Nanavati that Washington
Park’s tennis courts be renamed in honor of Manny Velasco, the Springfield Park
District’s director of racquet sports, Nanavati exclaimed, “By
Joe, why haven’t we thought of that sooner?” After all, Velasco
was a six-time junior champ in his native Bolivia. participated in the 1962
U.S. Open, and taught tennis at several area high schools and colleges,
including the University of Illinois at Springfield, where he has coached
the team to 14 national tournaments. At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, July 5, in a ceremony on Court
7 in Washington Park, representatives of the park district, the Springfield
Parks Foundation, and the Velasco Tennis Committee will dedicate the tennis
courts to Velasco, and his wife, assistant tennis-programs manager, Blanca Maria Velasco (consider
it a doubles event). In case of inclement weather, the reception will be
held in the pavilion. “So many people have been impacted and
empowered by the Velascos in such a positive way that this is an event that
was waiting to happen,” Nanavati says.
LAND O’ WALKIN’
Sky-high gas prices aren’t the only reason our
state’s sidewalks seem more crowded this summer. Apparently July is
also the chosen month for Illinois citizens to ambulate in support of
various charitable and social causes. Next Thursday, July 10, the Rev. Dr. Lee E. Fields Jr., pastor of
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Springfield, and his daughter Jasmine Fields will begin a
100-mile trek, starting in St. Louis and concluding in Springfield on
Sunday morning — just in time for church services. The Fields’
hike will raise funds for a school that the church, in conjunction with the
National Baptist Convention of America, is helping build in Ghana.
Supporters can make per-mile donations by contacting Pleasant Grove at
217-522-2513. In September, Fields will travel to Africa for the
school’s ribbon-cutting, although, church secretary Sonia Echols tells Cap
City, “We’re going to fly him out on this one.”
Then, on July 12, peace-and-justice activists depart
from Chicago for a 400-mile, month-and-a-half-long slog to St. Paul, Minn.
— the site of this year’s Republican National Convention, which
commences on Sept. 1. Led by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, which
organized a Walk for Justice from Springfield to the Windy City in 2006,
marchers will stop in several communities to hold vigils and town-hall
meetings, says Dan Pearson, a co-coordinator for the group: “We see it as an
opportunity to do some outreach and education along the way.”
MASS APPEAL With 16 participants on Friday, Springfield’s
first mass-bicycling event in more than five years might better be
described as “serious but stable” rather than
“critical.” However, Critical Mass organizer Alex Patia says he plans to
work to enlarge the group over the next few months. Critical Mass rides, although often characterized as
acts of social protest, have no stated political or social objectives or
leadership. They are held on the last Friday of each month in cities
worldwide. Patia, 19, attends college in Washington but grew up
in Springfield. He says that before he leaves for school he would like
Critical Massers to address the City Council and ask the city leaders to
make Springfield more amenable to commuter biking — for instance, by
installing bicycle lanes on some streets. “Recreation-wise, Springfield is really good,
but bicycling as a mode of commuting around town, it’s pretty bicycle
unfriendly,” Patia says. “On most of the major roadways,
you’re be taking a pretty big risk.”
This article appears in Jul 3-9, 2008.
