The Rockford Park District is celebrating the lives and legacies of local African American pioneers of parks and recreation. Marva Brown established the Harkins Community Memorial Foundation and started the Harkins Outstanding Youth Awards. Marva’s been associated with the Rockford Park District since 1996, when her seven-year-old grandson, James Lesley Harkins III, tragically lost his life in a drowning at the District’s Fairgrounds Pool. No family ever wants to go through what Marva and her family endured. In time, she found the strength to not only move forward but to help others in the community faced with the devastating loss of a child. She is an ‘angel among us’ and someone who showed the community how to take a terrible tragedy and turn it into triumph.

https://rockfordparkdistrict.org/marva-brown