Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that both ended young Stacy Williams III's life and served as a punch-in-the-gut reminder to this community that its gang problem is real.
Though the cards are stacked against them, a number of church and youth groups, with the help of law enforcement and elected officials, have spawned efforts to turn their outrage into positive action.
"It took little Stacy's death to say we can do things," said Pastor Jerry Parrish, a YMCA youth director. "Before that, people thought they didn't have a problem, but these are real issues and real problems.
"We have to allow the good people of the community to take over and say, 'We care about each other.' "
Parrish and a team of YMCA staffers and volunteers have banded together to bring the children of Pride Park a glimmer of hope in the form of organized sports, trips to the movies and old-fashioned TLC.
The efforts in Pride Park are only the tip of the iceberg.
Churches and youth groups in the heart of the county banded together to offer children a host of safe, free activities this summer.
Community Outreach Church leaders have started 100 Men for Change, a mentoring program offering education and character-building services to boys and young men.
This school year, 520 Manatee County students will have graduated from Amer-I-Can, a national character-building program geared toward helping at-risk children make positive choices.
Law enforcement officials have also responded with force.
Local prosecutors have begun using racketeering laws to target gang members and gang-related crime.
A steady stream of sheriff's deputies patrol the streets in and around Manatee Woods, where Stacy and his family once lived.
A new basketball court near Manatee County Sheriff's Office headquarters and barbecues hosted by Sheriff Brad Steube have also helped reconnect law enforcement officers with the communities they protect.
The sheriff's office reports an 8-percent decrease in crime in the neighborhood between January and March 2008, as compared to the same period a year before. Still, it remains in the county's top five crime-ridden neighborhoods areas.
Why did it happen?
Conditions were ripe for tragedy on the night Stacy died. For two decades, aging neighborhoods in the heart of Manatee County were ignored and slowly deteriorated.
Teen pregnancy rates and single-parent homes became prevalent in those neighborhoods and in similar areas around the country. Kids without a positive role model at home sometimes joined gangs that offered acceptance and an identity.
Territorial gang skirmishes evolved into full-on street wars fought with firearms.
On that late-spring night a year ago, Stacy Williams was riding his new bicycle behind his home when a fight broke out among reputed gang members. Several shots were fired; one hit Stacy in the head. He died soon after.
The gang problem had been brewing for years, with as many as five drive-by shootings every night in Manatee County before Stacy's death. Steube said the community is fortunate there weren't even more homicides.
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