It’s easy to look at something and take it for face value. Oftentimes, face value is the only thing there is. But sometimes, there’s more to something than you gather at first glance. The same can be said for the Vidalia Recreation Department. To see it as a collection of fields, dugouts, play sets, tennis courts, and buzzing lights is simple enough. And if the attention remains only on what’s been recently renovated, the heart behind our community will be missed.

For more than 60 years, the Vidalia Recreation Department has been an interwoven part of our community. State championships, long summer nights spent under the lights, and thousands of kids cycling through the dugouts have all left their mark in some fashion or another. While being a State Champ has a certain energetic ring to it, that’s never been the priority.

Coaches like Ed Smith, Tommy Sasser, Gary Adams, and Bill James realized a lasting impact on the future of the players they coached was the priority.  Building leaders, not trophy cases.

This project was set to showcase the rebuilding of the Ed Smith Complex and to honor those who set the path for us early on. Hours of interviews led us beyond what we initially thought it would, and to one final statement, to which Bill James has largely been given credit.

Leaving something better than you found it isn’t a new concept. It’s something you’ve probably heard more than a few times in your life. And again, if taken at face value, there’s nothing really profound about it. But it has set forth a motion for our Rec Department and for the kids it has served. It’s one that will seemingly ripple far into the future and well beyond the confines of the Ed Smith Complex.

Hats on straight, shirts tucked in, represent Vidalia with the purpose and pride that it so deserves. Leave this field, this dugout, and indirectly, yourselves and your teammates better than you found it. It was said more times than could be remembered, and perhaps even fell on deaf ears at times. But it taught us to be respectful, courteous, and more than anything, humble. Conduct yourselves as expected, not because that is the Vidalia way, but because there is no other way.

After Hurricane Helene hit, the mindset of Mayor Roper and the City Council was quite literally to leave it better than we found it.  They didn’t want to replace what was lost simply because it was necessary, but to honor what had been entrusted to us. The Rec Department has always been more than a collection of facilities, and the responsibility placed on our generation is no different from the responsibility unknowingly carried by those who went before us.

The Ed Smith Complex didn’t just get a rebuild, it got a continuation of the legacy and values that have shaped many of the people in our community; intrinsic values rooted in pride, care, and accountability.

The Ed Smith Complex stands ready for the next generation, a place where kids will continue to learn what it means to represent something larger than themselves and to take responsibility for what they are given.

To leave it better than they found it.