Peaceful Sunday event brings young and old together

An event called Peaceful Sunday brought young and old together at Citizen's Park in Gainesville for a day of food and sport to foster peace in the community.

Alonzo "Johnny" Brown said he has been organizing Peaceful Sunday events for almost 20 years, and Sunday's Easter event was the second annual on Easter.

The purpose of the event is to bring families and members of the community together to enjoy food trucks, vendors and games of basketball or football.

Brown started the event in 2001 with his own money, paying for the food and the park rental originally.

"I wanted to organize an event for people to just come out and have a good time," Brown said.

This year's Peaceful Sunday was in coordination with the City of Gainesville, with help from Commissioner GiGi Simmons and GPD Chief Tony Jones.

"I'll tell you what, after awhile it's going to be off the chain. It's going to be a lot of people here. It's gonna be wild," Brown said. "People are gonna come out and enjoy this park, enjoy the facility."

Brown is an anti-violence advocate, and he said that was the original purpose in creating the event.