First Baptist plans fun for all age groups at The Bridge

“The Bridge,” Peachtree City’s new community center has built a loyal following from the younger crowd, and that’s before the facility’s grand opening extravaganza this weekend.

While there are meeting rooms and programming designed especially with seniors in mind, First Baptist Church is targeting its ministry at middle and high school students, officials indicated. The church has funded construction and is staffing The Bridge with a rotation of roughly 350 volunteers to minister to the community’s needs, church officials said.

And they mean the whole community, as all are welcome regardless of their religious beliefs, said Lee Brewer, the church’s middle school minister.

Brewer said even students of Muslim faith have felt comfortable enough to spend time at The Bridge, and he’s even familiar with one student who comes by that doesn’t believe in God.

The community is invited to attend The Bridge’s family day today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and take tours from 2-5 p.m. before a concert by DecembeRadio from 8-11 p.m. Sunday, the group will have a worship service at 10:35 a.m. at The Bridge.

Despite the soft word-of-mouth opening over the past few weeks, students have been coming by to study and then play in the game room which features several video game stations, pool, foosball and table tennis and a gym that can be set up for basketball and volleyball.

Attached to the gym is a stage where the high school and middle school bands will perform from time to time, Brewer said.

Brewer said he’s been amazed at the variety of students who’ve come by after school to study and hang out. They can use their laptops to access free wi-fi service for research capabilities, and some students met in a study group the other night.

At Friday morning’s grand opening, First Baptist Pastor Steve Bingham noted The Bridge was due to a lot of hard work from the church family at First Baptist and he particularly lauded Mayor Harold Logsdon for his support of the project along with the City Council.

Bingham said the city’s recreation department was instrumental in helping the church figure out what services to offer to the community. The Bridge also got valuable advice from guidance counselors at Booth Middle School.

“I am most grateful to our church family which has been very supportive of this all along,” Bingham said.

Logsdon said he was thankful for the church’s efforts.

“This is an example of the good things that can happen in our community when people pull together to do the work,” Logsdon said.

Friday afternoon the facility’s six meeting rooms were set up for different uses such as card playing groups for seniors. The church even has a first aid room and physical wellness is also a part of its mission.

As promised, The Bridge will feature programs offered by the Peachtree City Recreation Department. Among the first are a “free play” gym time at lunch Tuesdays and Thursdays where adults can come by on their lunch break and play pickup basketball; there will also be exercise and fitness classes.

The gym features a walking track that will not be used when basketball is being played, and vice versa.

The locker rooms at The Bridge have showers so participants can clean up before heading back to work.

The church will be offering its Upward youth basketball program also to the community.

Another big program that will be offered by the recreation department is Teen Activities at The Bridge. The TAB program is an after-school program for students at Booth Middle School with indoor and outdoor activities and also some time for homework. TAB starts October 6, and thanks to the church transportation is being provided directly from the school.

The fee for the program to offset the city’s costs is $35 and it will be staffed by the recreation department. Space is limited to 25 participants who can sign up online at www.ptcrecreation.org.

The Bridge’s web site is www.thebridge-cc.org, which contains the activity schedule and hours of operation.