Road Named to Honor Davidsonville Park Advocate

The late 1990s saw huge enrollment in the Davidsonville Athletic Association, with more kids than ever signing up to play sports locally, and that posed a problem for then-director Bob Bradshaw.

"We had an explosion of growth in our programs. It got to the point where we had 25,000 different kids in our programs," Bradshaw said in an interview. 

Of course, Bradshaw was happy to see so many kids signing up to play sports. The problem was that Davidsonville did not have enough fields for all the kids that were playing. 

Bradshaw decided that limited field space was not going to limit the athletic youth of Davidsonville and went about solving the problem. One day, he spied a field off of Patuxent River Road that looked to be an old sand and gravel lot. That lot turned out to be 150-acres of land, land that Bradshaw envisioned as perfect for athletic fields.

And so began his quest to get Anne Arundel County to build what is now known as Davidsonville Park. 

The company that owned the field agreed to give the land to the county. At that point, Bradshaw said he went into "offensive mode," working with then-County Executive Janet Owens to get funds to create the park in the county budget, and testifying in Annapolis to secure Open Space grant money to further fund the park.

After several years of Bradshaw's advocacy and work by the county parks and recs department, Davidsonville Park was finally completed in 2005, for a cost of $4.75 million. The former gravel and sand lot now boasts several lighted fields, walking trails and a Patuxent River kayak and canoe launch site. 

Last week, Anne Arundel County honored Bradshaw and the work he did to help secure the fields by renaming the main entrance road of the park "Bob Bradshaw Way." 

Bradshaw said he saw himself as a mediator, helping to get multiple parties on the same page, and get athletic fields built for Davidsonville youth.

"The result is this beautiful park, not only for the children of our community, but an all-purpose park, where adults can walk the beautiful trails, alongside the children engaging in fair play sports," Bradshaw said in a speech. 

Bradshaw said he hopes his work advocating for the park will inspired other to get more involved and volunteer in the community.