Behind the Republic Community Center sits a shipping container, the kind of really big one you might see on a freight ship. This is the Sports Equipment Library, where coaches with players in need and other members of the Republic community can borrow helmets, balls, pads and so on for a maximum of six months. All one has to do is stop by during the community center’s operating hours, peruse the selection, and then fill out an online form.
The parks department recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the library. The star of the show was Hayden Hradek, a local high school student starting his senior year in the fall and the driving force behind the new program. It was Hradek who secured a $3,000 equipment donation from Amazon, as well as a grant from the University of Missouri Extension. He said that the project was inspired by his experience having to choose what sport to play while growing up with a single mother.
"So, for me, I played football and baseball. And I think I made the right choice — go Tigers, state runner-up — but that conversation, that situation, guided what I wanted to do in this community," he said.
The project served as the capstone for Hayden’s participation in the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, a program of MU Extension.
"Neighborhood Leadership Academy started 40 years ago in St. Louis, focusing on the neighborhoods there and really teaching leadership skills to those who were serving on neighborhood association boards," explained David Burton, who was Hradek's NLA instructor. "Shortly before COVID, there was an effort within MU Extension to really take that statewide. And so, I had a couple of classes in Greene County that were all in person using the same curriculum as Neighborhood Leadership Academy. But COVID happened, and then it was fashionable to do it on Zoom, which made it real easy to take it statewide."
Now, NLA operates on a hybrid model, where online classes are combined with in person “cohorts” in various parts of the state. Rooting Republic, a community gardening program, is another project which came in part out of the NLA.
The Sports Equipment Library will continue to accept donations. Neighborhood Leadership Academy registration for the fall is open.