Summer recreation program sees largest number of participants this year

•July 22, 2015•

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Since June 1, chances are if you’ve gone by Wyman Park during the morning or afternoon, you’ve witnessed a large circus of children playing a variety of games from flag football to kickball, soccer, Frisbee, table tennis, and even interacting on the park’s many slides and swings.
But what may appear to be just a large rag-tag group of children running about is actually the long-standing summer park recreation group, which for decades has kept Sullivan youth busy playing and having fun outside.
“I think it’s a good thing for kids in the community to have some structured event to go,” said Sullivan mayor Ann Short. “It keeps them out of trouble.”

Photo submitted by Melissa Haegen
Children enjoy the waterworks provided by the Sullivan Fire Department last Wednesday as part of the popular park recreation program at Wyman.

For more than 50 years, the summer rec program has been open to Sullivan’s youth. Paid volunteers run it on a daily basis for eight weeks, typically beginning the first Monday of summer break. The program is funded through property tax revenue, a small portion of which is set aside in a recreation fund to help pay not only for the volunteer staff, but also supplies. For the last four years, the program has been manned by husband and wife Jake and Melissa Haegen.
“I came out here when I was a kid,” said Jake. “My dad said he came out here when he was a kid, too, so it’s been going on for at least 50 years.”
“For the kids I think it gives them something that keeps them occupied, and they’re not getting into trouble,” said Melissa. “They’re being active. They’re not sitting in front of video games all summer long. We’re encouraging them to participate in sports that they may not have thought they were good at. It builds their confidence, their social skills. It’s just a positive thing for them to be out here. It’s a little less structured than the school environment so they enjoy that.”
One key element in the program’s success more recently is the implementation of the summer food service program, an initiative that is funded by the USDA and aims to provide meals to low-income students.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.