"A State of Towns. A Commitment to Community." is a GameTime original short film created to celebrate how small towns in West Virginia are investing in parks and recreation as more than amenities but as public commitments to the people who live there. Produced to coincide with Park and Recreation Month, the film set out to show that population size does not limit ambition: even West Virginia's largest city has fewer than 50,000 residents (technically considered a “small town”), yet its communities are building bold, meaningful public spaces that speak volumes about how much they care for their people.
The objective was to capture parks as investments in the way a community feels, moves, remembers, and belongs, and to tell that story through four interconnected lenses: inclusive access ("Play for Every Body"), so children of all abilities can play together; heritage preservation ("Heritage Made Visible"), turning local history into shared public space; active living ("More Reasons to Move"), encouraging physical activity through compelling play environments; and intergenerational connection ("Generations Together"), creating spaces where every age group can share outdoor time.
Ultimately, the goal was to send a clear message to every resident of these towns: you are part of this community, and this place was made with you in mind. The film aimed to make that message visible and emotionally resonant, showing how thoughtfully designed public spaces preserve heritage, express local character, and give communities a physical place to tell their story.
To bring "A State of Towns. A Commitment to Community." to life, GameTime sent director Charles Coleman on the road across West Virginia, capturing footage over multiple days at parks in towns across the state. Producer Kent Callison and Coleman scouted and shot on location, meeting residents from different backgrounds who were all working, in different ways, to build community around their public spaces.
One stop, in the small river town of Ravenswood, became a turning point for the film's direction. On a corner lot behind a library, in a spot that easily could have become a strip mall or another development, the town had instead built a veterans' park, a quiet piece of land that made room for gathering rather than commerce. It was a clear example of what the team came to see as good stewardship of land, and it helped shape how the rest of the film would frame small towns' investment in public space.
The team came home with days of footage and a strong sense that there was a story to tell, but with so many angles to choose from, that story had to be found in the edit. Editor Fred Williams, who hadn't been on location, worked through the footage from the outside in, and the film took shape around a single moment: a resident named Katrina, in a town of under 1,800 people, describing her home as "wild and wonderful." That clip became the first one Williams placed in the timeline, and the rest of the edit was built around the sentiment behind it, capturing how much pride a small community can hold for the place it calls home. Coleman and Williams also wove in a deeper historical layer of the town's story, layering local heritage into the present-day portrait of the towns.
The result balances two perspectives: the immersive, on-the-ground experience of shooting across West Virginia, and the outside eye of an editor discovering that same story for the first time in post-production. Coleman has described that gap as an asset rather than a challenge; seeing the first cut let him experience the material fresh, through Williams's point of view, and reconnected him with the creative excitement of the shoot itself.
The team's goal was never simply a feel-good video. It was to give viewers a way to see themselves and their own communities in the people and places on screen, and to leave them with the same sense of pride and belonging the crew felt while making it.
Since its release, "A State of Towns. A Commitment to Community." has generated strong engagement across GameTime's social channels. On Meta (Instagram/Facebook reel), the video earned 10,000 views, a reach of 7,300 accounts, and 861 total interactions, with an aggregate watch time of 1 hour 28 minutes. Audience response included 819 likes, 8 comments, 10 shares, 12 saves, and 578 new followers gained directly from the post, a strong signal that the story resonated well beyond GameTime's existing audience.
On LinkedIn, the post reached 65,548 impressions and drove 456 engagements, including 95 clicks, 25 reactions, 6 reposts, and 31 page views generated directly from the post. Audience demographic data on video viewers showed the film reaching key stakeholders in parks and community development: 6.1% community development specialists, 5.6% recreation professionals, 4.5% salespeople, and 4% school teachers, a mix that reflects the film's reach into both the recreation industry and the broader community-building audience it was designed to speak to.
Additionally, the web page designed specifically for this campaign garnered 915 views.
Together, these results show the film succeeded in its objective: turning a local story about small-town investment in public space into content that traveled well beyond its home communities, reaching thousands of viewers and hundreds of professionals in fields tied directly to parks, recreation, and community development.
