Sumter County Parks and Recreation Department Winning More Than The Game  
  

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If The General Public
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Sumter County Parks and Recreation Department
"If The General Public Knew..."

If The General Public Knew The Real Story...
Today's park and recreation professional must deal with the fact that the general public, for the most part, does not understand their profession. Most parents and even some community leaders, still have a mental picture of someone who either couldn't make it into the education field or a retired educator who has chosen to work for a few more years, as the person in charge of recreation. This couldn't be any further from the truth.

The professional of today must be educated, flexible and sacrifice many personal comforts to be in the public recreation field. Think about it; when the general public is playing, the recreation professional is working. This doesn't include the fact that your local parks and recreation employees were also at work this morning - the same time you were - but they're still on the job. Public service positions rarely pay at the scale of private sector jobs.

The summer months, when most families are taking their vacations, is the busiest time of the year for parks and recreation people. There are swimming pools to operate, summer day camps to run and baseball and softball tournaments to attend or host. Not only is the recreation employee at your game today, they had to ensure that the fields or the courts were playable. They had to schedule the officials that will call your game and, in some cases, even train those officials.

They had to solicit a business to sponsor your child's team. They had to order your uniform and much of the equipment that was used for the event. They had to train your coaches either through a self produced program or a nationally recognized one that required someone to facilitate it. They handle complaints from you and your friends and this is not limited to the times in the office or at the park. Many of the complaints are lodged by friends or acquaintances who feel they have the right to invade that persons home time.

Oh, and the concessions that you so enjoy...the parks and recreation person had to ensure that they were here and prepared for you. During all of these activities and responsibilities, they also must find time to spend with their own children and spouse. Many of them are active in their church or a social club. Most of them honestly have no idea how many wins your child's team has right now and guess what, they don't know how many losses they have either. If the general public knew just what it takes to be a professional recreator, they might question the sanity of the person in that position.

So if you have a true professional or professionals in your community you may want to thank them for their service. You might even want to count your blessings for a person that sacrifices their own family time for the sake of yours at a modest salary. Come to think of it, you might want to thank them for helping your child build things like self confidence, respect for authority, self control, discipline and other life skills that were your parents responsibility in their day. If the general public knew what it took to be a parks and recreation professional, we could improve our offerings in every community immediately!



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