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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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