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Editor’s Note: This feature originally ran on February 26, 2025 in the 2025 Progress edition (Chambers County Is…). The Progress edition is a publication produced annually by the Valley Times News. If you would like to pick up a copy of the 2025 Progress edition, please visit our office at 4002 20th Ave Suite E in Valley.

Laurie Blount may not be from here, but she is of here. The city of Valley Recreation Director was born across the river in Columbus, Georgia. 

“My dad actually was a pharmaceutical salesman. This was one of his areas that he sold pharmaceuticals to. So I knew some of the people here,” she said. “It was just, it was a nice little town.”

Her journey has not been a straight line, however. 

“I went to school to have a business major, and I hated it,” she laughed. “You had to take so many credit hours in PE, okay. And so I took every PE, there was…I met some people that were recreation majors, and they said, Laurie, you need to do this. And now I can’t think of anything else I want to do.”

From college she hopped around. She worked in Cobb County, Jekyll Island, Tuscaloosa and then Peducah, Kentucky before landing in Valley.

“My parents were getting older…so I just started looking for a place close, because all my family still is in Georgia,” she explained. 

Having always been a deputy director in a recreation department, she jumped at the chance to be the director in Valley. Blount has now been in the position almost 15 years, longer than anywhere else. 

“It’s been really good for us here. My kids enjoyed it. I enjoy it.”

She has seen first hand the role recreation plays in a community, especially this community. 

“It does bring the community together,” Blount said. “The recreation used to be done in each little [mill] community. So when the mills shut down, they built this building to help bring everybody into this facility. And it has helped a lot.”

It is easy to recognize why she enjoys her job, and how she is the right person for it. 

“It’s something different, all the time. Like you can come up with new things to do, you get to do special events….We do things that make people happy.”

Because of the diversity the job offers, Blount can often be seen out in the community. She is at all the Valley Council meetings, at the farmers market and of course at the Sportsplex. 

“You get to meet all, all different ages of people, all different kinds of people. It’s just fun. And I’ve done everything from scheduling baseball to a music festival. I’ve done every little thing.”

Having lived and worked all over, she has been able to recognize the uniqueness of Valley. 

“What I see most about this community, that I like a lot…everybody is friends.”

At the Sportsplex she sees all groups of people coming together. While she has seen the area grow over the past 15 years, she said that cohesiveness has remained. 

Recreation has stayed more or less the same, although the COVID-19 pandemic did affect departments across the country. While they are able to keep many people coming in, she is working to expand the free services to the public. 

“I’ve been working on this since before COVID, but we are putting a really nice playground at Shawmut Airport which will be finished in a couple of weeks,” she said. “Free play areas and playgrounds, is what we really need. I mean, we have everything else.”

With all the growth and development coming to the area, Blount hopes the department will be able to provide even more programs and events. 

“I think that as we continue to grow, we’re going to get new people in town because of the industry…It’s just going to get bigger and better. Yeah, I mean, Chick fil A even came here. Who would have thought,” she laughed. 

As a part of the Recreation Department, Blount works often with the young people of the community. Her advice to them was to leave; leave and come back knowing more and wanting to give back. 

“Learn something and go find what you want to do…I know people love it here, and I understand why… then I think also they need to get out and experience and if they want to come back, they come back.”

It certainly worked out well for her.