BUREAU OF RECREATION
Summer Programming
The Summer Program with the theme “Focus on the Future” was a great success in achieving a total participation figure of 376,700. Preparation for the Summer Program, as in previous years, begins in March with the hiring of staff and the purchase of equipment and materials for the months of June, July, and August. The program was organized into three units: playgrounds and related.
Playgrounds and Related Special Events and Trips—Highlights and Achievements
Playground Orientation and Training
To prepare the full and part-time staff for their assignments with the best knowledge of valid safety procedures, the Department ran its own two week-long training and orientation sessions for Activity Specialists and Recreation Leaders, I, II, and III. In addition, CPR/First Aid Certification was required for full-time staff and the Recreation III Leaders who acted as supervisors at each playground. This Medic Alert two-year certification was free to the employees, compliments of the Department.
Playgrounds
Sixteen playgrounds were open with lunches served on fifteen of them from June 11-August 10. Three to six City staff were placed on playgrounds to implement the programs and act as liaisons to the neighborhood. In addition, activity specialists introduced arts and crafts projects, new games such as Koosh ball, fitness games, stress and anger management exercises, and nutrition programs, with “hands-on” fitness cooking and snack classes, at the Brownstone. Also, repeated this summer was a series of Activity Days at 7th and Radnor Field and Morrison Park. Special visitors and activities were organized with groups of playgrounds participating and competing against each other in tournaments and games. This allowed the participants to have fun, taught them to be positive with their bodies and minds, and interact and cooperate with youth outside their neighborhoods. Environmental programs and inter-action with special population youth from the Easter Seals organization exposed the City youth to a wide-range of new, fun-filled, positive experiences. In addition to the community and neighborhood children who were serviced at the playgrounds, many daycare agencies, special population groups and individuals with “Wrap-around” youth daily attended our playgrounds and programs. The playground program ended in August with a very successful Romper Day in a three-day special format. The first two days all playgrounds competed in a Track Meet and field day, and the third day all playgrounds went roller skating, received a treat and a special Parks and Recreation lanyard for their i.d. cards and keys. The staffed playgrounds in 2001 were the following:
Wm. Howard Day/Morrison Park
14th and Shoop
Penn and Sayford
Royal Terrace
Penn and Dauphin
Wilson Park
Gorgas
Vernon Street
4th and Emerald
Hispanic Center
4th and Dauphin
Cloverly Heights
Lottsville
Pool #2
19th and Forster-Pleasant View
Norwood
Reservoir Park
Total Playground Participation — 135,000
Summer Leagues, Clinics, Carnivals—Highlights and Achievements
Activity Days
The special carnival-styled programs were scheduled four times during the summer at Morrison Park and 7th and Radnor Field. Included in the multiple playground’s scheduled activities were rollerblading, reading sessions by literacy volunteers, nutritional snacks, parachute games, basketball, races, fooseball, double dutch rope jumping. Cooperation and competition among participants and staff from multiple playgrounds taught many important life skills.
Aerobics
Toning and Floor Classes with the traditional Low-impact Aerobics continued to be popular free attractions to ladies and gentlemen looking for walk-in exercise programs of medium intensity. Both classes were scheduled in the City-owned, air-conditioned Brownstone Building which kept the cost of the programs minimal for the Recreation Bureau and free to the participants. Kick-boxing and cardio-step classes, with the new Body Sculpting, also attracted the “in-shape” participants for high intensity workouts.
Track
As in previous years, the Department sponsored the local Hershey Track and Field Program, organized local winners to attend the District Hershey Meet, and sent a small group of local youth to the State Meet in State College. In addition, the Department organized practices at the John Harris Field two nights per week and traveled with these participants to numerous all-call meets in Gettysburg, Millersville, and Carlisle.
Basketball
The Department did not sponsor a youth or adult male basketball league during the summer months. Energy and funds were channeled to playground basketball activities and a female youth league in Reservoir Park two nights per weeks.. Traditionally, the Over-18 Women League was organized with eight teams playing at Bishop McDevitt High School. Prizes of tee-shirts and championship sweatshirts were awarded to individual players on the Championship and Runner-up teams. In addition, the Recreation Bureau co-sponsored the Ugima Teen League organized by Kaaba Brunson and Destry Mangus by underwriting the cost of the league tee-shirts.
Tennis
Free summer tennis activities for youth were scheduled at four (4) sites throughout the City; Reservoir Park, Sunshine Park, John Harris High School, and William Penn Middle School Instruction M-F, from June through August, concluded in a City-youth tournament with trophies being awarded to the top players in three age groups. Adult lessons were offered at John Harris for eight weeks with a minimal cost being charged. The second adult tennis program attracted over 90 people to HACC for the Harrisburg Open Tennis Tournament. At the conclusion of the summer, the youth and adults were invited to attend the Arthur Ashe Day at the US Open Tennis Complex free of charge. All who attended were thrilled to meet and see many tennis greats who helped with clinics and fun matches that day.
Junior Golf
The Junior Golf Program was the most extensive ever in its sixth year as part of the Summer Parks and Recreation Program. Indoor sessions in January, February, and March were offered at indoor sites to attract additional participants to the Summer Program, which ran from June to August. Youth ages 6-16 participated in a deluxe yet totally free junior golf program thanks to the City, the Harrisburg Parks Partnership and a $40,0000 grant from the United States Golf Assoc. Foundation. During the summer, City youth could attend sessions Monday through Friday from 9-noon in Reservoir Park for free instruction. As part of that program, youth also visited golf courses or driving ranges or both each week as part of the program. In addition, these same participants played with pros in the Buy.com Pro-Am, attended a clinic with golf pro Jim Furyk, and attended a golf clinic and played golf with corporate sponsors at the Mayor’s Annual Golf Outing in August at the Sportsman Club. The junior golfers received free shirts, hats, and, in some cases, free golf clubs and trophies.
Soccer
Soccer in the summer is evidenced by a number of different programs. Free soccer demonstrations for beginners were scheduled at each of the seventeen playgrounds. Playground youth and the community youth were also invited to a free one-week day camp at 7th and Radnor Field for all levels of play. Again, the Dauphin County Agency on Drug and Alcohol helped underwrite the cost of the clinic; HEAT and Wildcat players and Parks and Recreation staff acted as instructors for the week-long day clinic. Shirts, water bottles, and balls were given to all the attendees compliments of the Department and Dauphin County. If the youth wished to attend free evening soccer sessions at three fields in the evenings from June to August, they could also participate in these sessions free of charge to receive additional instruction or practice their skills. The Department with the HEAT also offered ten free registrations for a 3-on-3 Tournament at City Island in July. In August or earlier, the youth were encouraged to register for fall teams with the Harrisburg Youth Soccer Club. Team registration costs are minimal since the cost of the teams is partially underwritten by the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Harrisburg Parks Partnership, and private donations.
Volleyball
Volleyball on City Island has grown in the last six years to boast the largest participation figures in the State and possibly the nation for a schedule of sand league games and sand tournaments. Last year the league had over 220 teams and over 800 participants. Four tournaments were popular and were scheduled on the major holiday weekends. League play also took place at Sunshine Park since new fencing around the courts improved playing conditions for the men’s teams which were not all able to be accommodated at City Island. Finally, in addition to the men’s play, activity at Sunshine involved the coordinators of the sand league teaching clinics for the teen participants of the summer playground program in basic volleyball skills.
Arts and Crafts
At two special events, the Department offered free arts and crafts instruction and handouts for youth ages 5-10. The events were the National Kids Day in Reservoir Park and the African Festival. Projects such as painters hats, yo-yo’s, visors, sunglasses, masks, frames, and many other projects were organized for children and their parents to create together. The projects or kits were purchased with funds from the Department; the staff were Recreation Bureau employees. In addition, the Department organized arts and crafts at the Downey School Fair, and the HACC Diversity Festival.
Pools/Aquatics
Aquatics Training
Training for lifeguards, monitors, and concession workers is scheduled from April to the end of August. Courses for CPR/First Aid, Lifeguard Training, Water Safety Instruction, and Instructing Lifeguard Certificationis organized for the employees of the City for minimal cost or for free. The classes are organized at the Reservoir Park Mansion, the Brownstone Building, and at Pool #1 and #2. This implementation of in-house certification enabled the Department to certify all personnel according to Commonwealth requirements for very minimal costs and also allows the City to offer very, inexpensive Learn-to-Swim lessons since three (3) City staff are Learn-to-Swim and Lifeguard certified instructors.
Learn-to-Swim Classes
Learn-to-Swim classes held for beginners and advanced beginners for both youth and adults at Pool #1 and Pool #2. Community residents, as well as day camp participants and church youth groups, participated in the two-week sessions. The Parks and Recreation Department collected a $5.00 administrative fee for each person; this was passed directly to the Harrisburg Red Cross Chapter. At the completion of the youth courses, the Department rewarded participants with certificates, ribbons, candy, and tee-shirts or some other hand-out. At the conclusion of the adult course, the participants were invited to a celebration picnic at the pool.
Recreational Swimming
Recreational or “fun” swimming fill much of the daily schedules at the pools and City Island Beach. Pools operated Tuesdays through Friday, noon to 7:00pm. Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00 to 7:30pm. The Beach operated from noon to 7:00pm daily. Traditionally, the pools are closed on Mondays and City Island Beach on Wednesdays for maintenance. The greatest increase in participation in the last two or three years has been with the visitation of daycares, daycamps, church groups, and playgrounds. Participants registered with one of these groups receive discounted rates or swim for free because an agency has purchased a group pass.
You can find out more about other seasonal programs by following the appropiate links below.